Pocket God - game usability playtest part 1

I recently ran a game usability playtest of Pocket God on the iPhone. Why that game? It's developers Bolt Creative recently claimed that it's been downloaded 2 million times. I was intrigued to see the appraoch the developers took to keep the game fresh - to release regular free updates (30 "episodes" over just over a year).

With so much additional content being added to the core game I was curious to see how the game introduced itself to a new player. I decided to conduct a very-mini playtest, consisting of 1 tester. Step forward test subject number 1 (the girlfriend).

Test subject number 1
Preferred genre -  Strategy/Puzzle
Favourite game - Ceasar 3
Systems owned - iPhone and PC/Mac (some play time on the Wii)
Average time playing per week - 2-3 hours

*Disclaimers*

1. I had no contact with the game before the playtest -  I didn't know anything about the controls or content. Not ideal for a playtest, but it was necessary (the iPhone used for the playtest was owned by test subject number 1).
   
2. I deliberately didn't allow test subject 1 to read any information about the game before the playtest - not even the reviews. She would normally have read the reviews, and learnt about the game to a much greater degree before purchasing. A lot of the issues encountered wouldn't have been encountered in real life (as the tester would have read around the game before commencing). I wanted to enact a spontaneous purchase.
   

The playtest

I'm just going to write what happened:

Before the game loads, an 'Open Feint' window appears and requests to use the players data. The tester (hereafter referred to as her, or she) was unsure what this was for. She thought it was a different application altogether and guessed it was some form of social tool (it is, but there's no explanation - what it is, or what you'd want to sign up to it for).

Next she asked if they want push notifications. "Are these warning messages? How often will I be warned?"

The game starts and informs her that episode 29 is loading - "Episode 29? Why start on episode 29?"

The game loads with 1 pygmy on the screen... it picks up a fishing rod and starts to fish. Almost immediately it is pulled into the sea and eaten by a shark - much to her dismay. She's left with no one on the screen anymore. She doesn't notice the 'add pygmy' button in the top of the screen. She gets distressed.

With some assistance she notices the controls in the top of the screen. They load the help, which offers some explanatory text... but this is rather small and hard to read. There's a total of 34 help pages - too much for her to take in. They started reading... then gave up. She gets distressed. "Ice monster? What? I'm meant to throw the pygmies at the ice monster? How? Why?"

She creates a couple of pygmies and tries dragging one around. Succeeds in dropping the pygmy into the sea, where it quickly drowns before she can pull it out again. She gets distressed.

After a couple of minutes she is starting to get to grips with the controls. However, they still felt overwhelmed - "There's too much...".

Pulling up the map she accidentally takes the pygmies to the 'underwater zone' "Are we underwater now? Why?". She panics, fearing the pygmies would drown.

Finding the toggle controls (where the player has the ability to toggle various interactive aspects of the zones on and off). She toggles a couple of options, but is unsure what they control "Are they on or off? What are they?"

After 5 minutes of the playtest she abandons the game. "I just don't know what to do..." She believed she was playing the game incorrectly, that there was a way to be benevolent and save the pygmies from their rather gruesome fates.

After playing

After playing she went online to see what she was missing. Reading the Wikipedia entry, the tester realised the whole point of the game was essentially to torture and kill the pygmies in a variety of amusing ways... This didn't appeal to them. The game was not to their taste, but they were still able to find several issues. The biggest being:

• The game never introduced itself to the player - there was insufficient help and no tutorial. It was also unclear exactly what kind of game it was (a sim-killer)

I'll discuss the other issues, and how they could resolve some of them next time!

Context of game play is key - Part 2

I'm playing a few classic older games at the moment:

• Fallout 3
• Mass Effect
• Bioshock

All great games circa 2007-8. Why so old?

Up to recently, I didn't have much of a chance to play games. I lived with my Grandfather, he had 1 TV, he watched it a lot. This meant if I wanted to play any console game I had to wait for him to walk away from the TV (not a regular occurrence). Then I would sneak on and have a gaming frenzy.

Unfortunately as that wasn't that often, I was reduced to playing games on my old conked out PC. In the cold cold cold spare bedroom. If I wanted to play a game I'd have to wrap up like a Michelin man. Unsurprisingly I fell out of the habit.

"I'm off to game!"

That's a major problem with games, they take up an entire living room. If you're playing, it's hard for someone else to be in the room doing something else. One of you will distract the other. There's a great shot of me playing Dead Space Extraction in the front room with headphones on, trying to be discreet. I managed to distract the housemates watching TV by flailing my arms around (physical attacks in the game) and jumping (scary bits).

The solution? There is none. Get headphones, get a PSP/DS... That's about it. You're then either still taking up the TV or playing on a much smaller screen. Players know you need a room, it's one of the prices of entry (you know, in addition to the actual prices for games/equipment themselves).

It also has an implication for how you go about playtesting games - natural environment (in the lab or in the players homes), familiar company (friends and family), etc, etc. This is a further blog post for another day though...

Coming up shortly - iPhone Pocket God playtest! oooooo...

Context of game play is key - Part 1

The world needs me. I'm busy saving the world.

I'm mid-way through Final Fantasy 7, a game that blew me away last time I played it. As soon as I saw it on PSN I know I had to go back and play it all over again. I spent 2 late nights trying to coax PSN to accept my hacked PSP. It was hard, work, but I did it!

Final Fantasy 7. Great game. I clocked 70 hours when I first played it through the first time around on the PlayStation 1. Now I'm playing it again. I should be loving it, but I'm bored... it's not the same as last time. This time around, it's different. Things have changed, but what?

PSPortable

The PSP is (obviously) a different piece of equipment to PlayStation 1 - you play in totally different situations:

PS1 - Large screen, good sound, non-portable.
PSP - small screen, poor sound, portable.

I think this is the key problem. I now play the game in totally different situations than previously. The first time through it was only played in the front room. On my own, with a large screen dominating my vision, and with nothing else going on.

Playing on the PSP means I can play the game anywhere. This is both a blessing and a curse. It means I can play ANYWHERE! I've played whilst cooking, in front of the TV, whilst on the train... other things are going on around me. I'm not as wrapped up in the story as I once was, my attention is now split between the game and everything else occurring around me.

I can also drop out of the game whenever I want. I'm not obliged to listen to this or that cut scene, I don't need to stick with it to the next save point.

This problem is made worse because I often play the game without sound, so I don't interrupt people around me. I've removed one of the key affects the game has on me. Without sound I've now got to rely entirely on the visuals for atmosphere. But with a smaller screen as well as other things going on around me it's a lot harder than it once was.

What else has changed? Well...

Story

I played through the game before, so this time I know what's going to happen. I can't remember the details, but the main arc and twists are still there. The story itself now seems at little melodramatic.

The result is that I'm not gripped as I was before. I can put it down and wander off whenever I need to. No more late homework (or work equivalent).

Summon spells

A common complaint I know, but the 'summon' spells can't be skipped. Whilst I found this a small price to pay to play the game last time, this time it's infinitely more annoying. Last time I had the storyline unfolding before me, this time I don't want to grind, I want to get to the story peaks asap. Why didn't the designers allow skipping? *sob* I'm a busy (ish) man! I've got no time to wait!

Batman Arcane Asylum game usability review - the bad

So - I've finally finished Batman AA! What a game... It's pretty rare for me to complete a game, but I pulled the plug just a couple of days ago. Complete, with all 240 riddles done as well. Chuffed with that. Yes, yes, I know it's not that special, but I can now break the addiction.

So I've posted what I liked about the game. Now for part 2 - the bad aspects of the game usability/user experience. Just to be clear, the game is so good I feel I'm really having to search for improvements. I can't wait to see what changes they make to Arkham Asylum 2.


Fights can end anti-climatically

So the combat is great fun. Engaging, flexible, reactive, etc. But there is a small problem. Each fight ends with a slow-mo, alternative angle of the final puck/kick/throw/etc. But about 50% of  the time this dramatic view shows Batman doing a silly finishing move, such as kicking someone in the shin, or even missing the person completely! The slow-mo gives the player a long time to watch the final move... and see any flaws in the impact mechanics/silly underwhelming final moves.

The 'detective mode' is too powerful 

A problem I find with modern games is that it's harder and harder to see what can be interacted with, and what is just decoration. There have been a variety of different attempts to highlight 'interactive' objects. The tradition is to display the items in a different colour, make the items glow/glimmer or visually highlight the items in some other way. A good example is Bioshock - usable items have a shiny glow/glimmer. The problem being that this adds an artificiality to the game ("real bananas don't shine like that!").

Batman AA gets around this by offering a 'detective mode', where interactive objects glow orange. This ensures that the game world can remain 'pure' (no glowing objects here!) but means the detective mode is too useful. I spent most of the game with it on, meaning I missed out on the graphics of the normal mode.

Batman AA could supplement the 'detective mode' on top of the normal mode (so interactive objects can still glow and stand out, but the rest of the images doesn't loose it's colour). I'm essentially suggesting a combination (or at least a much closer connection) between the normal and detective mode. 

Other detective mode issues 

The 'detective mode' is so powerful, I played most of the game with it on. This lead to 2 problems:

• It's hard to tell wardens (friendly) and inmates (not so friendly) apart. As a result I found myself attempting to creep up and knock out wardens throughout the game. Not a major problem, but it just pulled me out of the game-world briefly. This could easily be fixed with different colours for friendly and hostile people. The game already does this to a lesser degree, inmates with guns are coloured red, so unarmed inmates could be yellow and guards green or blue.
• It's hard to tell when there's a wall between Batman and the person. As with the warden identification problem, I found myself attacking a wall (pretty embarrassing, as I was showing the game off to a friend at the time). Once more, it's not a significant problem... It just once more acts as a reminder that you're playing a game. The game could indicate to the player when there's a barrier between Baman and a person by using a darker/lighter shade of colour.
 

Equipment issues 

I had 2 issues with the equipment offered in Batman. I loved the pace they introduced more and more complex equipment as you move through the game (even updating older equipment to keep you existing gear fresh). However I had 2 (very similar) issues with the equipment controls:

• Selecting another piece of equipment when under pressure was surprisingly tough. For far too many fights I tried to boobytrap a downed inmate with some rope or the electronic hacker because I failed to pick the explosive from the radial menu. The game could pause while the player makes their selection. Alternatively reduce the amount of time the player must hold a direction in the radial menu to indicate what equipment they need.
  
• Related to this, there's no information on what equipment is selected. This leads to the same problem as above where I tried to use the wrong equipment at the wrong time for a situation - I just didn't realise I was using the wrong item. This may be a deliberate design choice - to save screen space/reduce clutter and/or because you don't have a HUD in real life. If not I would suggest adding a small transparent icon of the item. This should be placed in the corner of the screen, where the radial menu appears.

Sometimes unclear where to go next

In the previous post, I raved about the help offered when you struggled in set pieces, how the game tells you the best strategy to avoid the issue next time. Unfortunately the help isn't infallible. There are various points in the game where it's not clear where to go/what to next. I was wandering about in 1 corridor for about 5 minutes before giving up, and reading online that I missed a grate in the ceiling all along!

The developers should adjust the points where people regularly got stuck in playtesting and adjust the layout a little to accommodate this. They could find these points by defining the average time a player should get to the next section, and comparing it to the actual playtesting average. Alternatively the game could offer hints from the girl on the radio - e.g. "are there any vents nearby?" 

Quite a bit of repeats in environments

Another minor issue... again as there's so little for me to talk about here. A lot of the detail in the environments (furniture, files, etc) are repeats. Not normally a problem, but one of the details is a photo. This photo crops up over and over again all over the asylum. Either this person is the asylum equivalent of Jedward (for any non-British readers, best not go there) or they need more pictures. I've picked up on the pictures because faces are so much more memorable than tables, folders or anything else.

Batman's character

A minor issue is Batman's character. I enjoyed the game's story itself, good ol' fashioned trash. But through it all Batman himself was a little... 2 dimensional. Like the recent films all he does is grunt in a gruff voice to everyone he speaks to about how they should stand back and let Batman fix it. There's no uncertainty, no remorse, no... character. Batman's just essentially brought Joker into this island to cause havoc, killing many guards in the process - how does he feel about that???


And that's your lot! All in all a great game, with some very minor game usability issues that need adjustment. Personally? The most polished game I've seen in quite some time.

Microsoft patents online user generated help

So, according to my sources, Microsoft is placing an online help system, with content from both developers and gamers themselves. I (obviously) think this is a great idea. Hints in games are of interest to me, and I just wrote about how great it was to see Batman Arcane Asylum using hints when players fell at set pieces.




I don't want to be told what to do, let me work it out in my own slow slow way... (I hate Cluedo)

They've got a tough balance to find between hints giving away too much and too little. I'm sure they've thought it through more then me but I presume levels of obvious-ness will need to be introduced (level 1 could be a cryptic clue, and level 5 could be being told exactly what to do), supported by user ratings (something that was noticeable for its absence in Spore).

My only concern is that the patent is too strong and hamstrings Sony/Nintendo/anyone else really getting to grips with help/hints and tips in games as well. With the major developers pushing each other to develop the best/most useful and user friendly hints systems for people, great systems will develop. I'm sure they won't be put off though.

The article mentions in-game hints for Super Mario Wii... I've just got that and it's waiting for me to find enough energy to fight it's shrink wrap off. Expect some feedback on the hint system (and the rest of the game) soon.

Batman Arcane Asylum game usability review - the good

I've been playing this for an age, and it doesn't look like I'm going to be putting it down until I finish it. So because I've invested so much time into it, I thought I'd split the assessment into 2 posts:

- Part 1 - the good
- Part 2 - the bad

Lets make 1 thing clear, I'm a big fan of this game. This part - the best aspects of the game's user experience, it's high quality game usability, will be EASY.

Good graphics

The game itself looks great (bar the character's comically huge muscles). The environments are detailed and busy. There's fairly few cutscenes, and those that are there look really good.

Engaging combat

As the director said they have put a lot of effort into the combat system - and you can tell. It's flexible and fun. It also looks great, dynamically adapting according to the situation.

In earlier brawler systems, the player controls the direction the fighter is facing, and is given buttons that do specific actions, such as puch/kick/throw/etc. This often led to the frustrating situation of a players character swinging just to the side of a bad guy whilst making no contact (usually whilst they watched, bemused).
A swing and a miss...

In this game players are given 4 controls (jump/avoid, counter, attack and stun), the player controls where these are directed with the control stick. The buttons don't do a specific action, but the intention of the button. So 'attack' may punch sometimes, and kick on others, or 'avoid' may jump over an attacker, or slide between their legs. All this is dependant upon the situation, meaning the games combat feel much more engaging and free flowing than others I've seen.

Players also recieve clear feedback on any combatants about to attack, a visual signal displays, giving the player time to counter or avoid the blow.

The system is pleasingly easy to pick up and understand, but I certainly feel I've yet to master it.

Good, well paced story line

The story line, while not groundbreaking, is pretty good. It keeps you moving through the areas with little feeling of being shepherded. It's also well paced, with a good variety of puzzle solving and fight scenes. Even the fight scenes are kept fresh with a nice variety of situations.

Help when you die at set pieces

One of the best parts of the game, the part I was most pleased about was the hints the game gives when players die at set pieces. For instance, when I was struggling with a boss fight - Bane - after being knocked down the game gave me a short message hinting to use my 'batarang' more.

It could consider giving more and more clues if players continue to struggle, or even offer to reduce the difficulty for that specific part of the game.

Quick save unobtrusive

A great feature I always love to see it autosave, it's great not having to worry about saved games. I know loads of games do this nowadays, but it's so well integrated I thought it deserved a special mention. Whoever put this into games in the first place was a genius...

Easy controls, gradual introduction of additional tech

The game has really well thought out controls (anyone who's read my blog all the way to this point will know this is a particular obsession of mine). It's very easy to run, jump, zip around, surprise thugs, etc. There's really very few points where you really feel you're fighting the controls to make the game do what you wanted (more on that in part 2).

The game also takes care not to introduce everything at once. Controls are slowly added with the gradual introduction of Batman's technology, meaning players are given time to get accustomed to controls before further complexity is added. This gradual introduction of complexity is a sure sign of a game developer taking care not to over-burden new players when they take their first steps into the game's world.

Even something simple like skipping cutscenes is well designed. Some games skip cutscenes after 1 button press - this means you place the controller to one side holding it like some delecate Ming china in case you hit a button by mistake. Batman needs 2 presses. The first press brings up the on-screen message allowing skipping, the second is the confirmation.

To be continued...

And there I'm just scratching the surface! For each one of these points I could go into more detail very easily, but that would mean I've got to spend more time writing and less time playing.

Generally, a great user experience.

Coming up - part 2 - the bad! (Dramatic music)

Dead Space Extraction game usability review

Dead Space Extraction (DSE) - the latest on-rails shooter. Certainly a departure from it's predecessor (Dead Space, a space based survival horror), but is it any good?

I'm going to be uncontroversial and say it's... fine, as all the reviews have said. There are a few game usability problems that really don't sit well with an otherwise pretty good game.

Ignoring the story

1 of the big attempts DSE makes is to introduce a feasible story into an on-rails shooter. The story of survival against all the odds was a key part of Dead Space and there is an attempt to reproduce this here.

The problem is a feature built into the game that rewards players who don't pay attention to the cut scenes - you can do better in the game by ignoring the story.

Throughout play you are encouraged to key an eye out for items (such as ammo and weapon upgrades) you can 'grab' using a kinetic blog thing. These items can appear at anytime, during quiet periods, firefights and during cut scenes. The result is whenever you're not shooting, the best approach is to spam the 'grab' button at anything that isn't a blank wall. The net effect is that you spend very little attention on the story unfolding around you... or you risk missing out on loot.

"Sorry - I don't care what you've got to say, get your head out the way of that cupboard..."









There's a couple of possible solutions DSE could consider:

• Don't offer items during cut scenes, the player can then fully focus or skip the cut scene as they wish
• Alternatively, offer items in cuts scenes, but only after the first play through (perhaps at the higher difficulty levels), when players will pay less attention anyway
  

Audio blogs

1 of the hidden bonuses you can find are audio blogs, with short recorded messages from the (now deceased) crew. The problem being these are lost in the poor Wii Remote speakers. I had no idea what they were saying...

DSE should consider offering the option of playing the audio messages through the TV speakers.

Turning away too soon

Another problem that should have been spotted is the occasional point where the game turns away from a creature too soon, leaving you open to attack from behind. You're facing the wrong way and the creature is repeatedly wacking you over the head... and there's nothing you can do about it.

It just pulls you back to reality. An unwelcome reminder you're playing a game, and the game really shouldn't do that if it can possibly avoid it.

DSE shouldn't turn away from creatures whilst they're still alive - you wouldn't turn away from them in real life anyway.

Recognising your gun

The game offers you a variety of weapons to choose from. A problem is that it's often quite hard to work out what weapon you're using... Several look very similar. It's not a big issue most of the time. It doesn't matter what you shoot a creature with, as long as you don't accidentally equip your Super Soaker...

The problem is at a couple of points you need to use a specific gun - the rivet gun. It's not clear you need to equip a different weapon if you have the wrong gun equipped. It took two tries at one set piece to understand what I was required to do.

DSE could consider changing the aiming rectagle to clarify the difference between the guns, or include some clearer text when a gun is equipped. When the rivet gun is needed, and not equipped, ensure the player is made aware. The characters around the player could say something, or a message could appear on the screen.

Positives

Having said all this, it's still a great game. It looks great, especially for a Wii game, the sound is good and voice acting more than sufficient (first time I've played a game featuring a Dutch accent).

The story (if you attend to it) is good, it has a great shooting mechanics and some exciting set pieces.

DSE is Aliens to Dead Space's Alien - a great fun shooting-fest... just don't expect to get too scared whilst enjoying the ride.

How about you? What're your thoughts on the game?

Late Wii Fit game usability review

Although Wii Fit Plus is already in the stores, I thought I'd get down my game usability thoughts on Wii Fit, and aspects of the game that should be considered for Wii Fit 3 - Wii Fit Cubed maybe...






Playing in a group

You can tell Wii Fit is designed to be played alone. Essentially all the activities require the Wii fit balance board. But we treated it as a party game. I had my family round my brothers copy, and we all did exercises together. However, after we all created our profiles changing between them was very hard work. After completing an exercise/minigame, to change player you had to:

1. 'Quit' out of the exercise/minigame
2. Exit the exercise/minigame 'channel' selection screen (yoga, muscle exercises, balance games)
3. Exit the welcome screen
4. Select the new player
5. Select the right 'channel' on the welcome screen
6. Select the right exercise/minigame

6 steps! Far too many for quick switches between players.

This sits poorly against the games apparent attempts to encourage group play. Whenever someone new enters the game, the other players are told of this, and says how good it is to play Wii Fit together. The game encourages people to play it together, in spite of the effort required to do so!

Wii Fit 3? Ensure there's a shortcut to change between profiles.

Personal details

People are sensitive about their weight. They don't like to tell others, and they don't want others to know. But when first joining Wii Fit, it announces your BMI for the whole world to see! There is no option NOT to see your BMI, it is plastered all over the TV. Anyone else in the room will have seen it.

The designers seem to have been aware that people wouldn't want others to see their details, and there's the ability to protect your information behind a password, but not on the first go...

Wii Fit 3? Offer new players the ability to NOT see their BMI when they join.

Multiplayer

When My girlfriend and I were playing Wii Fit, 1 of us did the exercise on the balance board, the other did the exercise alongside. We were exercising together. That's the next step... 2 balance boards on a machine at the same time. This would encourage us to use Wii Fit and exercise far more than any other change.

Wii Fit 3? Make sure people can exercise in a pair, using 2 balance boards at once (if they're sufficiently monied to have 2 boards).

Why I'm not getting Wii Fit

I really like Wii Fit. It's fun, and it really would keep me active. Anything to get my rotund behind moving is fine by me! BUT I'm not going to be getting it. Partly for the reasons above, and also partly because the game needs a large amount of space in front of the TV. I don't have that, and I can't get that... at least until I next move house.

Also, it's dependent on everyone around having a relaxed open attitude. To play Wii Fit in front of others is essentially to make a fool of yourself. You do yoga, poorly, you try and balance, you wobble, and you sweat. You need people around you who are willing to let you do all these things and not judge you. Alas, where I currently reside, I don't have these people. I can't exercise if front of my current housemates, I won't be able to relax. I'll feel like I'll be judged.

Ah well, just means I get to play it once a month whenever I visit my brother. No losing weight for me just yet.

Charlie Brooker - Summing up the trouble with games

I read a great interview with Charlie Brooker yesterday. For those of you unaware of who Charlie Brooker is - He's one of the angry ones on TV. Pretty funny, and very... aware. Go see his stuff if you like someone being bitter. He's recently made a program called Gameswipe which this interview covers. Essentially Charlie, Mr Brooker, wanted to make a program about games that would be entertaining to both gamers and non-gamers. He speaks about the problems he faced:

"Games don’t realise how off-putting the complexity of games is to people who don’t regularly play them. Every gamer has experienced this, and again this is something we were going to put in the show. You introduce someone to something like Grand Theft Auto and they haven’t played a game since Streets of Rage when they were a student.
You sit there with them and within minutes you’re going: “No, press that button. No, that one. No, you’ve gone into crouch. No, don’t do that. That’s the map. No, you can’t run in that door. Why not? Well, you just can’t. It’s part of the scenery. I know you could run in the other door, but you can’t go in that one. Why? Because you just can’t.”
You have to sit there biting your tongue as they point the camera at the ground and run into walls. You forget how difficult games are to the non-gamer."

"It’s like learning a language. We’ve done it. We’ve played games for years. We know the shorthand. There was a bit of the show we had to lose where we talked about this. I know that if you’re running around and the camera’s in the wrong place I know that there will be an option to centre it behind me. A non-gamer isn’t going to now that unless they’ve poured over the manual. I don’t have to read the manual to know that."

I think this cuts straight to the nub of the issue. The reason why the Wii has been so successful is that people haven't had to learn how to play, you just do what you do naturally. More complex games need training, they need understanding, hard work and commitment.

"The closest analogy really is that it’s like we’ve learnt a language. Gamers are people who’ve learnt Esperanto."

Hope you're all keeping your Esperanto finely tuned - and spare a though for those starting out!


"How do you use this?" picture from YoshiVic

Light of Altair game usability - demo problems

I'll be discussing the game Light of Altair, specifically the game usability issues. This game was first brought to my attention by Gamers With Jobs (thanks guys!)

I really want to like this game. It's sounds great, GWJ wrote "Light of Altair has done a great job of distilling the elements that made games like Sins of a Solar Empire so addictive. If you prefer your strategy gaming in 20-minute chunks, Light of Altair is for you. "

BUT, I can't play it! Why? The demo is just too confusing.

A demo should showcase a game simply and clearly. It should not require the player to study any complex text or manuals, or leave the player confused on what to do next. After all the aim of demo is to ensure players have a seamless experience. They should move through the demo learning about and doing some of the things possible in the game without encountering any problems, otherwise it's goodbye possible sale. Players should see enough of the game to get a taste of what they can do, and be left wanting more. This demo unfortunately leaves me cold... Here's why.

Problems with the Light of Altair demo

Simply, it's confusing. The help messages simply don't tell me what I need to do, or how!

For example, I recieved this message:

"Now that the moon base has grown to a proper colony you need to construct a research facility and the power to support it."

The problem is, it doesn't tell me how I go about doing that. I eventually discovered the "research facility" had become available in the construction list and was able to move on... Why doesn't the game highlight that? Tell me in the message, or highlight the new building option visually.

Further on in the demo a message appeared:

"Commander, the construction of the moonbase is going slower than we planned. Please focus on the objectives otherwise we will be forced to relieve you of your post"

Huh? What was I doing wrong? The game didn't tell me, I was left along to work this out. How? Trawling back through all the messages the game had sent me recently (status reports, updates and crucially, orders). I found I needed a landing area on both my colonies - why not say that? Ok, moving on. Mission complete - next mission.

According to the mission summary at the top of the screen I've got to "Gain an income of $5000 a month". Easy. Wait... how do I do that? I've looked back through the instructions and I think this is the related instruction:

"Now you have an ore supply, you are advised to research and develop an Industrial Centre that can create tradable goods out of the ores on the planets surface. These goods can then be traded via a Starport to generate more income."

Ok, I got it. Build mines, then industry, and I'll make money through the starport. The problem is, I can't work out how! I've got mines, I've got industry, but I'm getting very little trade. I've missed something out. The help text is of no use, they're essentially worthless. The instructions fare no better. So I'm stuck. I've no idea how to proceed and I've just recieved the message of doom again:

"Commander, the construction of the moonbase is going slower than we planned. Please focus on the objectives otherwise we will be forced to relieve you of your post"

I'm out thanks...

What the game should have done

• Given much clear instructions on how to do the objectives asked, e.g. "generate an income of $5000 a month. Income can be generated by..."
  
• Given tips to the player to explain how to complete the objective they're stuck on, e.g. "you need to build a landing pad in all your colonies"
  
• Ensuring the help text linked to much more in depth instructions/explanations on how the game worked, e.g. "For each mine, 2 industries are needed in the same colony"
  

Conclusion

Demos are possibly the most public facing aspect of a game. They cannot be some early levels of the game thrown together hastily. The whole experience the developers want to project to the potential buyers needs to be considered, and then that should be modelled. It will require further development time and resources, but a good demo should pay for itself by encouraging better sales.