Beta Testing in the LBP Classroom

When I began this project I had several things that I wanted to do. One of those goals was to create a small team of students who would come in, look at the projects the creators are working on, and offer peer feedback.  It would be kind of like having what the video games industry calls testers or QA.  When the design group became a reality I thought back to last school year and really considered who I heard talking about games a lot.  There were two boys that came to mind.  I approached both of them in February, and these two young men both seemed very interested.

The finest in fifth grade gaming fanatics.

Unfortunately, due to the time it has taken to get projects ready, I have not been able to utilize the boys as much as I had hoped in the process.  However, I am happy to say that Friday after school my feedback team was able to play each level and fill out a feedback sheet for the creators.  The page that they filled out was very basic.  It consisted of the following questions,

1.       How fun was the level?

2.       Would you play it again?

3.       Was it easy to understand what you were doing?

4.       What was something you liked?

5.       What was something you would change?

6.       Did anything not work while you played?
(Note: Questions 1 - 3 were on a 5 point scale)

They played the races in split screen and I even joined them for one of the LBP2 competitive games.

The creators will receive their feedback on Tuesday and Thursday and be able to make some adjustments as we draw closer and closer to our publishing date.  I truly think that this process was and will be helpful.  It is my hope that next year I can start the group earlier and make better use of a testing group, but these two certainly given me a nice starting point to work from.  

This race was a crowd pleaser.  

We will get into that in the next week or so.