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Academy of Art University Final Review – Thesis Book
The Hunted: Analyzing, Interpreting, and Harnessing the Power of the “Player Experience”
Erik Waananen
M.F.A. Game Development, Student ID #03664336
Academy of Art University, Graduate School of Game Development May 4th, 2015, 1:00PM PDT
Table of Contents
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Autobiography …………………………………………………………………….. 3
Resume ……………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Portfolio ………………………………………………………………………………. 5
Directed Study Journal ………………………………………………………… 6
Thesis Summary ………………………………………………………………….. 7
Production Timeline ……………………………………………………………. 9
Thesis Project Visuals (Personal Work) ………………….………….… 12
Thesis Project Data (User Research) …………………….…………….. 19
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….……… 49
Autobiography My name is Erik Waananen and I am currently finishing my M.F.A. in Game Development with a concentration
in Game Design. I am 27 years old and was born and raised in Connecticut, having moved to San Francisco in 2013 to attend school at the Academy of Art University.
While I originally completed my undergraduate work in Cinema/Television, in my final semester of that program
I began to form a number of professional concerns over the direction that the U.S. film industry was headed in. I started to lose interest in working with film, so after graduation I decided to take some time and reassess my career goals. After a while, I ultimately came to the conclusion that while I still wanted to create stories and new worlds for others to experience, I no longer wanted to do that using film.
On top of this was the realization that I was honestly far more passionate about games in my day-to-day life, so
pursuing a career in game development seemed like the best medium to transition to. However, I realized that if I was serious about changing fields, then I would most likely need additional schooling to catch up fast, so I decided to officially commit and make the switch. I had heard great things about AAU through a recent Princeton Review so I enrolled as an online student in 2012. I really wanted to get the most out my time as a graduate student however, so I decided to move to San Francisco the following year to continue my studies on-campus. With each passing day, I am more and more certain that my decision to switch fields was the right one, and I feel as if now more than ever… I am finally on the path to answering my true calling… Immediately following graduation, my plan is to relocate to Seattle and find an industry job (hopefully in a Game Design or User Research position) at one of the many studios in the area.
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Directed Study Journal
My Directed Study Journal, which details The Hunted’s development and my thesis process in even greater detail, can be found online at:
http://www.waananen.com/thesis-development-blog
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Thesis Summary
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Thesis Summary
As outlined in my initial thesis proposal, The Hunted was inspired by a real life game of the same name created by myself and a friend of mine during high school. The game was a combination of hide-and-seek and tag played in a dark basement with a strobe light and a loud siren, where one player would start as a monster and have to tag the other players (turning them into additional monsters) until everyone had been caught. Despite being a very simple game and ultimately having no traditional objectives for players, the game was a surprising success with all of our friends and was very well received by anyone who played it. So when it came time to decide on an idea for a Master’s thesis project, the question of what made The Hunted such a successful game stood out as a fascinating mystery to solve. “Why was it fun?” “What elements made it work?” In order to discover the answer to these questions and more, I would need to design a project that would focus on two main areas as part of a single, larger study: 1. Attempt to recreate The Hunted as a finished, playable, digital game.
2. Discover what made the original game a success and see whether those aspects would even translate well
into a digital format via player feedback and playtest analysis.
Using this approach, the project would result in not only a finished game product, but would also (hopefully) provide enough data to help determine what exactly made the “player experience” of The Hunted so unique.
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Production Timeline
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Original Timeline (Midpoint Review)
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More Recent Timeline (Spring 2015)
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Thesis Project Visuals (Personal Work)
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Level Design (Original Top Down Map – Midpoint Review)
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Game Design – Product Backlog
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Game Design – Early Prototype Footage
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Thesis Project Data (User Research)
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Thesis Project Data
In addition to the creation of a finished, playable game, this thesis project also featured a second major focus: 1. Attempt to recreate The Hunted as a finished, playable, digital game.
2. Discover what made the original game a success and see whether those aspects
would even translate well into a digital format via player feedback and playtest analysis.
In order to accomplish this, The Hunted would need to be playtested extensively. In a sense, The Hunted would become a kind of “player study” in the sense that we would use the game to not only see if we could successfully replicate the elements of the original game, but also try to discover what exactly made The Hunted such a unique experience for players in the first place. Over the course of the entire project, we collected a TON of data from our players; far too much to go through all of it during this presentation. So in the interest of time, I’ve decided to isolate individual examples of our overall test process to demonstrate exactly how we set up tests, collected data, and drew conclusions from the results.
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Thesis Project Data
Over the course of development, we conducted tests with two separate testing groups: 1. Online Tests (with a group of approximately 10 recurring testers) - This group was commonly referred to as the “Alpha Test Group” - This group participated in 3 tests: November Alpha, February Alpha, and May Beta - This group also featured individuals who had actually played the original The Hunted before 2. On-Campus Tests (with random players, which eventually came to 55 total participants) - This group was commonly referred to as the “Beta Test Group” - This group participated in 1 test: April Beta, which was conducted over several days
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User Research – Alpha Test Footage
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
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November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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November 2014 - Alpha February 2015 - Alpha
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Alpha)
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November to February Feedback Overview (or “What We Ultimately Took Away From The Tests”)
- Reduce the size of the level.
- Redirect our gameplay focus towards more “hide-and-seek” elements and away from “tag” mechanics.
Level Design (Top Down Map Evolution)
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Level Design (Top Down Map Evolution)
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Q6: On a scale of 1-5, how often would you say you play SURVIVAL HORROR games?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q8: On a scale of 1-5, how satisfying was your overall experience of playing The Hunted?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q9: On a scale of 1-5, how tense did you get while playing The Hunted?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q10: Please rate how much you liked the following aspects of the game:
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q11: On a scale of 1-5, how large do you feel the SIZE of the level was?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q12: On a scale of 1-5, how often did you get lost while playing?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q13: On a scale of 1-5, how did you feel about the difficulty of playing as a SCIENTIST?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q15: On a scale of 1-5, how did you feel about the difficulty of playing as a HUNTER?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Q18: On a scale of 1-5, how often were you frustrated while playing the game?
Answered: 55
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
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User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
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February 2015 - Alpha May 2015 - Beta
User Research – Interpreting Our Test Data (Beta)
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Conclusion
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What made the original “The Hunted” fun?
It wasn’t really the gameplay or the rules. It was the very experience of playing; of being present
in a uniquely immersive environment.
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Were we able to recreate the original “The Hunted” game in a digital format successfully?
Yes (for the most part).
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What elements from the original game are missing that
might have had an impact on replicating its success?
Major: - Genuine tactile/sensory input. Minor: - Custom character models. - Custom animations. - Additional polish to all areas.
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Did the “fun” of the original game translate well digitally?
Yes.
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Did players still have fun regardless of The Hunted’s
intentional use of objectiveless gameplay and minimal
design elements?
Yes.
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But what does this all really mean??
It means…
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1. As developers, we may be able to make better games by
focusing more on providing experiences for players to have,
rather than just on creating narratives or gameplay features.
(And that “simple” or “basic” can still be fun, or sometimes even more fun than “complex” or “intricate.”)
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2. That we can and should look to real life games (and
game-like systems) more often as sources of inspiration.
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3. The more we want to bring a real life level of presence into
games, the more we need to reassess how players experience
games and rethink how we develop them in the first place.
(This is particularly important as we move more and more towards AR and VR-based gaming.)
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So Where To From Here?
The Hunted’s future depends on a number of things, but regardless of what happens down the road, I plan to use what I’ve learned from this project to
continue exploring the nature of the player experience and find new ways to create even better value for players. If my work on The Hunted has taught me anything, it’s
that as developers we must continue to think outside the box in order to keep players inspired. My work on The Hunted may be done for now, but the lessons I’ve
learned will stay with me forever. And who knows… maybe once the technology gets good enough, I’ll have the opportunity to revisit The Hunted someday and make the digital version truly indistinguishable from the real one in every way.
Thank You!
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