This is an assignment that I worked on at my college.

1. Siphon - Usability Testing Plan
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Siphon
Usability Testing Plan
Version 1.0
Team Ginyu Force
March21,2015

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................ 1
Executive Summary........................................................................................................................ 2
Summary of Test Plan Creation.................................................................................................. 2
Objectives.................................................................................................................................... 2
Methodology.................................................................................................................................... 3
Determining Target Play-testers ................................................................................................. 3
Training........................................................................................................................................ 4
Procedure.................................................................................................................................... 4
Impression Questions..................................................................................................................... 6
Exploratory Questions..................................................................................................................... 7
Data Collections.............................................................................................................................. 8
Tester Demographics.................................................................................................................. 8
Tester Level Time........................................................................................................................ 8
Average Times ............................................................................................................................ 9
Initial Testing Experiences............................................................................................................ 10
Flowcharts..................................................................................................................................... 14
Main Chart................................................................................................................................. 14
Level 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Level 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Level 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Level 4 ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Level 5 ....................................................................................................................................... 19
Level 6 ....................................................................................................................................... 20
Level 7 ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Level 8 ....................................................................................................................................... 22
References.................................................................................................................................... 23

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Executive Summary
Summary of Test Plan Creation
Within this document you will find the guidelines for conducting validation
play tests for the game Siphon.The focus of our tests will be to discover
what the users find entertaining about the title, what improvements can be
made capture and hold their attention, as well as studying the target
demographic fortitle. By giving each play tester a fair chance to sample the
game with little interaction from the test team, we should be able to
discoverhow players will interact with the game, which areas of the game
players excel in and which areas they found difficult,how to pitch this idea
to consumers.
Objectives
● To make sure that the game is enjoyable.
● To make sure that each level has a goal and can be accomplished
from start to finish.
● To make sure there aren’t any “bugs” that can break the game. If so
discovera solution by receiving feedbackfrom the tester.
● Gauge how casual gamers interact with an unfamiliar title.
● Determine if the predicted target audience is the ideal audience for
the title.

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Methodology
During the play test the analyst should:
● Determine how each play tester interacts with the game differently.
● Discoverthe differentapproaches players would take to solve
puzzles.
● Watch to discoverin game designflaws or bugs that may be
discovered during the processof playtesting.
● Minimize interaction between the participant and the note taker. (Try
not to inform the player of any information about the game unless it is
no longer in a playable state.)
● Time the playtest and each individual level to get a generalized
understanding of how long it would take to complete the game and
why.
● Ask for the play tester to express their displeasure with the title for
any reason. To think out loud during their test if possible.
● All materials required to playtest Siphonwill be provided and the tests
will be held remotely.
● The game’s controls will be explained in the game. Additional
information that was not supplied within Siphon will be mentioned
upon requestfrom the play-tester.
Determining Target Play-testers
A set of questions will be asked to verify if the test subject fits the ideal
target audience:
● How many times a week do they play games?
● What kind of games do they play?
● How long do they spend playing the game?
Participants will be selected based ontheir given answers. The typical
casual gamer’s answers we would preferare:
● How many times a week do they play games? 1 times per week.

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● The genre? Strategy, puzzle, casual games (some adventure titles
etc.)
● How long they spend playing the game? 1-2 hours per session.
Training
There will not be a need to train the participants on any materials. The
game application will be readily available for the test taker to load and
proceed with playing.
Procedure
In this sectionevery step by step action of the playtest will be
mentioned. Participants for the playtests will be selected after answering
three questions to determine if they are eligible (preferred target audience)
to play Siphon.Once the participants are selectedthey will be given the
opportunity to play the game on a computer.
All instructions about the test and the length it will take will be
declared to the participants before the test begins.The examiner will pay
close attention every detail that takes place during the session.What the
proctorwill be looking for is the player’s reactions to the game, comments
made, actions that took place in the game, as well as looking for any bugs
that may have occurred that were not supposed to be in the game. The
examiner of the playtests will overlook the player as he/she plays the game
and take notes. During this period of time the interaction between the
proctorand the player will be cut to a bare minimum. The examiner will only
intervene in the process of the play test only if the game is no longer at a
playable state.
There isn’t a set time limit for each test but we will try to keep them in
the general vicinity of 1-2 hours of gameplay. Breaks will be given every
30mins or so and during that moment in time the proctorwill discuss the
player’s experiences.If the game is completedearly, the information
gathered from watching the participant will still be processedfollowed by a
short verbal questionnaire issued by the facilitator. All tests regardless of
the time of completionwill be issued the verbal questionnaire. Once the

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test is over thank the participant for their cooperationand assistance in
making a better product.

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Impression Questions
1. What is your first thought upon the start of the game?
2. What kind (Genre: shooter,fighting, action/adventure, simulator,
puzzle, RPG, etc) of game do you think this will be?
3. What do you think of the menu?
4. What appeals to you in this game?
5. Is there anything you would change at this point? What and Why?

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Exploratory Questions
1. (Level 1) How difficult was it to figure out the controls?
2. (Level 2) How did the player movementfeelto you?
3. (General)How clear was your goal forthis level?
4. (General)What did you think of the difficultyof the puzzles?
5. (General) How helpful did you find the hint boxes for this level?
6. (End of test question) Is there anything that you (the play tester)
would like to see included in the game and why?
7. (General, except1) How do you feelthe new feature(s) within the
level changed how the game is played?
8. (End of Level 8) Did you feelany of the puzzle were too similar to one
another? If so, which puzzles?
9. (End of Level 8) Which level did you find the mostfun? Why?
10.(End of Level 8) Which level did you find the mostchallenging? Why?

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Data Collections
Tester Demographics
Tester Level Time
Tester# 1 2 3 4 5
Level1
Time
Level2
Time
Level3
Time
Level4
Time
Level5
Time
Level6
Time
Level7
Time
Level8
Time
Total
Time

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Average Times
Level # Average Time per Level
(All tester’s time added, then divided
by total number of testers)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Total Average Play Time

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Initial Testing Experiences
Eric
I had played through the game a number of times. The main problem
I found was when I went from one of the later levels and went back to the
main menu. If I would then go to the level selectto one of the level before
where I last was, the levels wouldn’t rest when I would start the game over.
For an example let’s say I was on level 6 and I went back to the menu. I
would then go to level selectand go to level 2. All of the goals would still be
how they were when i completedthem, but the door to enter level 3
wouldn’t open. This would then keep me from proceeding forward unless I
reset the game myself.The game itself aside from a couple things hold a
lot of promise to be a good game.I found myself getting really into trying to
solve the puzzles and time myself. The puzzle are intricate and difficult. At
some points it feels the puzzles for one level were easier than a previous
level. For example level five is primarily all moving the Electric energy
around to keep the crusher from destroying the Kinetic cubes.This level
was significantly easier than level 4’s glass room. With some fine tuning
and adding more levels, this game could become a good puzzle game that
I would considerbuying on console or on Steam.
Jonathan
After a couple of playtests I have to say that I like the game because
it’s reminiscent of the game Portal.I enjoyed the core mechanics of the
game and the puzzles themselves,however since I sometimesplay these
types of games I find the puzzles moderately difficulta first time through it.
There were problems I did encounter; one of these problems was the fact
that if I got stuck in one of these puzzles and I have to restart an entire
level just to redo one puzzle on a level. Something like this would not be a
problem for players like me but for casual gamers something like this would
turn them away if they had to start an entire level over just to completeone
puzzle in one section of the level. I would like if the developers can add in a
checkpointsystem so that every time a player completesa puzzle so they
don’t need to go back and redo everything every time a player makes one
little mistake. Another thing I think should be addressed is the fact that

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even though the little help boxes are somewhat helpful, there should
something the at least helps the player in the beginning of the game to help
them get more familiar with the controls and the differentenergies they will
encounter. There is also a little bug that I noticed with the help boxes,some
boxes look like they are overlapping one another. I felt that there were
some places on multiple levels that I felt were empty or a waste of space;
for example, at the beginning of level two there is a long hallway that is just
there with no purpose.Finally, I feelthat should something like the portal
gun from Portal to better representthe player positionand where the player
is aiming. Overall, I felt that the game is pretty solid for a First Person
Puzzle game, however, it needs some polish and it needs some fixes that
will make the game more appealing to more players.
Lisa
After doing a couple of playtests, I encountered a couple of things
that I think the creators of Siphonshould know about. One thing that I
noticed while playtesting was that in Level 4, I couldn’t figure out how to get
past the fan to get into the next room. It was also difficultto get through the
platforms that were going up and down at a fast pace and my point here is
that I couldn’t really see when the platforms were coming down because of
the camera angle the player has. The camera position made certain
aspects of the game more challenging because you couldn’t see how close
you were from getting crushed from falling platforms.Throughout the levels
of the game, I think that having a avatar part like an arm could give the
player a more precise location of where they are standing. In level 1, I did
encounter a glitch that crashed the game and I had to restart the level from
the beginning. The glitch was when I went to jump on the blocks and then
all of a sudden the player fell through the level and fell into an endless fall.
Even though I found things that kept me from completing certain levels, I
found the game to be very complexand challenging and I think that this
game can be played by various ages of gamers. I think that this game can
be educational for players because it puts their brains to the test and
challenges them to see if they can very out a series of puzzles. The unique
thing about this game is that the puzzles get more difficult as you progress

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and this was a good idea because it keeps the game interesting to play
instead of having the same puzzles on every level.
Ron
During my series of playtests, I noticed a few things that I would like
to address to the creators of Siphon. The first thing I would like to mention
is that players may selectany level from the beginning of the game which
can be accessedat the start menu. This would defeatthe purpose of
players playing through the game and jump straight to the end. My next
issue with the game would be level 8’s puzzle. On this particular level the
player must solve the multiple stages of the puzzle before the toxic gas fills
the room. Pressured by the sense of urgency to escape the fumes,I tried to
rush through this puzzle after many attempts of failing due to trying to learn
each segmenton the fly. This initially seemed like a good idea to learn
each segmentand on your final attempt rush through it if you failed
because you know what to expectbut the game began to glitch. The player
would fall through the floorwhen the platform was raised or as you try to
cut a corner you get stuck and fall into the fumes.These problems may be
due to the game unable to register all that is happening on the screenor an
actual designflaw the designers did not account for. From a casual
gamer’s perspective this could become annoying, discouraging,and result
in them not completing the game due to the lack of wanting to play more.
My last commentto the designers of Siphon would be to either introduce
the differentgame mechanics that will be used throughout the game at the
start of the game or they can demonstrate their abilities at the beginning of
the level without revealing its use during the processof figuring out the
puzzle. Having tooltips for each new mechanic made it easy to navigate
through the level in which they were introduced. Pretty much the challenge
to the puzzle was taken from me because they provided the necessary
knowledge of what to do within the tool tip. As for the things I liked about
this game was the simplicity of the puzzles. This game should be user
friendly to the mass majority of gamers. I would rate this game E for
everyone. It was very informative, every challenge I faced within the game
made sense according to the mechanics they introduced in the game. I
would strongly encourage the designers to expand on this title and

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introduce more complexpuzzles while maintaining the simple designof the
game.
Shawn
I have to say I enjoyed the core mechanics and the core idea behind
Siphon.There plenty of obvious inspiration from the Portal games,plus
while I am terrible at them, the game falls into that first personpuzzle
genre, a genre I personally think should have more games in it. The
puzzles are clean, and all the environmental information is there to solve
the puzzle. The only issue is some issues with the lack of instructions of
controls. The little info boxes on the differentenergies were incredibly
helpful, but I feelthere should be one at the very beginning explaining the
basic controls. While I, as an very experienced gamerwas able to quickly
figure them out, and learned them all once I looked at the GDD,that
doesn’tmean that mostnew players will be able to figure out the controls,
or might take too long for them to figure them out. I assume or at least hope
that this is something that will be in the final build of the game, but it is still
something important to include.
The game still needs a bit of polish, but it is looking very promising.I
could easily see it, with some polish and more content (i.e. levels,
mechanics, some work on the sound effects & music and some kind of
environmental storytelling) as a full release,either on pc or a game
console.

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Flowcharts
Main Chart

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Level 1

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Level 2

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Level 3

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Level 4

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Level 5

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Level 6

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Level 7

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Level 8

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References
1. Usability TestPlan Template.(n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015,from
http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-
tools/resources/templates/usability-test-plan-template.html
2. Isbister,K., & Schaffer,N. (2008).Further Thoughts from Steve
Swink on Game Usability. In Game usability:Advice from the experts
for advancingthe playerexperience (pp.298-304).San Francisco,
Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann ;.