Notes from Play Testing with Alex's Mother

[adorsk]

Hi @michelleful , here are a few notes from an initial play test with my mother.

Overall she liked the idea very much, and she did learn about Chinese characters.

Things that Worked Well

1. She liked the backstory
2. She liked that it started off easy, it was clear which part of the character had to be cut.
3. She did make the inference that sometimes the character is a 'meaning clue', and other times it's a 'sound clue'.
4. The drag-and-drop made sense and was intuitive for her.

   Suggestions

5. She wanted to hear the sounds of the words
6. She would have liked to have a little blurb up front about how the character parts can sometimes indicate meaning, sometimes sound. One idea from this comment: at the beginning of each round, maybe your surgery mentor gives you a little briefing. "The Nu neighborhood has been hit hard, we're seeing a lot of cases come in. Usually these characters have the 'nu' radical, to show that they are related to feminine ideas."
7. Timed mode wasn't as fun for her, she wanted to take time to look at the characters.
8. She wanted to know how to draw the characters (in terms of strokes)
9. She wanted names for the parts of the characters (stuff like 'the three drops of water', 'the animal radical')
10. She would like to see some sort of reward at the end of the round. It could be something like a fortune cookie fortune, or maybe your surgery mentor gives you some kind of badge. Idea: the badge could be a badge for the different radical shapes you see. Players can start to collect the radicals as they see more.

    Other Notes

11. I noticed as she was playing how characters from earlier rounds came back again as donors. Nice use of repetition!

[michelleful]

Hi @adorsk,

Thanks for the notes, they're wonderful. And thanks to your mother, too!

My comments on the suggestions:

1. She wanted to hear the sounds of the words -- that would be great to add to the online version
2. She would have liked to have a little blurb up front about how the character parts can sometimes indicate meaning, sometimes sound. One idea from this comment: at the beginning of each round, maybe your surgery mentor gives you a little briefing. "The Nu neighborhood has been hit hard, we're seeing a lot of cases come in. Usually these characters have the 'nu' radical, to show that they are related to feminine ideas." -- hmm. On the one hand I see her point (and yours). On the other hand this was something that I was very keen to have the players discover for themselves as your mother did. Timed mode wasn't as fun for her, she wanted to take time to look at the characters.
3. She wanted to know how to draw the characters (in terms of strokes) -- hmm, interesting. Something to think about. I hadn't thought to include this at all as I was thinking more about teaching the breakdown of characters rather than how to write them.
4. She wanted names for the parts of the characters (stuff like 'the three drops of water', 'the animal radical') -- okay. The radicals do have names. The sound components don't really unless they can stand alone and (like you did) you call them by the stand-alone character. It's a bit trickier when they don't all agree in pronunciation. Again, something to think about!
5. She would like to see some sort of reward at the end of the round. It could be something like a fortune cookie fortune, or maybe your surgery mentor gives you some kind of badge. Idea: the badge could be a badge for the different radical shapes you see. Players can start to collect the radicals as they see more. -- Yes! The badges are a great idea. An alternative that I had thought to do was at the end of each "night" of treating people, show a little cut-scene of the character thanking the doctor, or reuniting with its family, or whatever. To be honest, badges would be a lot easier and could be a nice thing to collect!

Again, thanks so much. Let's talk more on Tuesday!