This week’s prototype, I attempted to create a rough version of one of my minigame ideas. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to code it to the degree for it to be playable in time for class, so I ended up creating a print-out version to show manually instead while I explain it. I also had sketches of how it’d actually look on my laptop as well. The background for the game story-wise is that the player’s on a grocery run for their grandma. However, to buy the groceries on your list, you need to play a card matching game upon reaching the store. However, as a twist to the simple card matching game, I added in a few more rules. First, the player’s goal isn’t to match all of the cards but only specific ones. For example, if the list said 1 apple and 2 milk, then the player is only aiming to get 1 match for apples and 2 matches for milk. If the player got a match for an ingredient they didn’t need, their money would decrease and the game continues on. If the player runs out of money before they reach their goal or has too little money to get to their goal (ex: milk costs 4 coins and they only have 3), the game is lost and they restart. If they run out of time, they also lose.

What I had hoped to learn from this prototype was mainly how people felt about its mechanics and if they considered it to be a fun minigame. Although I aimed for it to be a simple, not too stressful minigame, I was worried that it may have been too simple or that there was a flaw in the game rules. To get the answers, I had people go through the demo first and then asked them questions directly.

I learned that people found the game interesting and fun enough. For level difficulty, suggestions were made about changing the total number of cards to 16 or 20 and to allow around 3-5 mistakes total before game over. I also received positive feedback for the timer idea of the shop keeper subtly hinting at the time left here and there and her animation growing more and more impatient as the timer ticked down. Other feedback I received that I did not expect was on a minigame idea I had not yet demoed. I had explained a 2nd idea for a farming minigame when asked. That minigame was kind of diner dash like where the player basically had to do the planting, fertilizing, and harvesting at the times or else they wouldn’t be able to harvest the required number of crops. For that game, a suggestion was made for maybe having that as a game that continued throughout the game (a farm that you continue to go back to as you progress through the story). There was also another suggestion made about when the player missed the timing and the crop went bad, the animation that could be played could be a cow or some other type of farm animal that comes and basically eats it up.