5/10/99

Last week we had a Focus Group for Torment. I believe we had mentioned this earlier, and now that it’s over, let me explain to you what it was. A Focus Group is there to test consumer reactions for a product. So, we decided to bring some 40 gamers in who generally like to play RPGs, ranging from casual players to hardcore RPG fans. We wrote up a very brief description about the game’s mechanics and the let them fiddle with the game for an hour. During this hour we observed what they did, where they had problems, etc. It is usually a very good test to see if your user interface is intuitive and if people understand how it is working without a manual - as I said, our description was VERY brief. Well, it turned out that most had no general problem with the revamped interface we have, but some details definitely need refinement. A number of players, for example, never found out how to cast a spell, because the way they used the interface never showed them an actual list of available spells. This is of course something we need to change. Another thing that was obvious was that some player didn’t know how to leave the Inventory and Stat screens of the game. Seems we have made the "Exit" button a little too much part of the overall interface feel, and some people started clicking all over the place. As a result, we will have to make sure there is a clearly visible "Exit" button somewhere on those screens. Apart from such obvious observations, it is also interesting to see how people play the game. Some of them start it up and go right into combat, without hesitation. In Torment this is not necessarily a good idea and more than one player found themselves chased all over the place by creatures they could not really take on. Others started reading all the dialog, playing the same dialog sequence over and over again, just to make sure they did not miss a single word in the text. As a result, the allotted 1 hour playing time didn’t get them very far into the game, although all of them eventually commented on the quality and richness of the written text, which is just as important feedback. One thing that was truly striking was that more than half the people NEVER talked to Morte, although he was literally sitting right next to the stone slab the player awakens on. This was peculiar and upon closer inspection we found out that the players actually had problems selecting Morte to talk to him. The problem arises from a game mechanic in the engine and becomes extremely evident in the case of Morte. Usually you select a character at the bottom, clicking on the creatures feet. As soon as you move the mouse over the area, a blue marker will appear and you know you are now actively selecting that creature. The problem with Morte is that he has no feet and is floating about 5 feet high in the air. As a result most people tried to click on the skull itself, which does not select the character. No response occurred and they never tried again... well, obviously, this too, is something we need to address. We were able to observe a few other interesting patterns and found more things we need to change to make sure the game will be easily playable and fully comprehensible without having to go through reams of manual pages. After having played the game, we asked the players to fill out a questionnaire for us, which helped us to get a general feel for their impressions. Did they enjoy the game? Did they want to keep playing? Did they find specific features? Did they feel anything important was missing? All these were typical questions from these forms and after filling them out, we sat down with all these people individually to talk to them about their concerns and impressions. The result was resoundingly that they liked the game and enjoyed playing it. From there it spun off into various directions. Some people like the graphics, while others thought the text was the best part about it. Others again felt Morte should be the main character because of his style and attitude, while yet some other players felt combat was the coolest thing. As you can certainly imagine, everyone perceives such a game completely differently and we were trying to find out what works for those people and what doesn’t. As a result, hopefully we will be able to create a more involving gaming experience and one that is able to satisfy all these different requests, tastes and expectations. Before we get there however, I feel we will have to create another Focus Group or two to see if the changes resulting from this one actually improve the experience, and what the next level of improvement should be. Guido Henkel Project Director

Planescape: Torment & Design: © 1998 Interplay Productions. All Rights Reserved. © 1998 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Planescape, the Planescape logo, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Torment, the AD&D logo, and the TSR logo are trademarks of TSR, Inc. and are used by Interplay under license. TSR, Inc. is a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Interplay, the Interplay logo, Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Productions. Exclusively licensed and distributed by Interplay Productions. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.