This post is a bit belated (which is another word for tardy, which is another word for remiss, which is another word for behindhand, which is another word for “I should have posted this on Saturday but I didn’t get around to it until now, four days later, so shame on me,” which is a rather long phrase so you can see why I used “belated” instead. My brevity is a sign of my wit.
What happened on Saturday, you ask? We had our first playtest at the Children’s Museum’s Makeshop!
We spent two hours at the Makeshop as bright young minds from all over Pittsburgh wandered into our magical snares and took our software controls out for a test drive. We had six stations fired up: Engineer, Gunner, Hacker, Security Chief, Biologist, and Doctor. All were very popular and fun was had by all.
I was impressed by how well the young kids took to the controls. Our controls are designed for older users (ages 8 and up), but the kids in the 5-7 range did a great job too. They might not have picked up on all the subtleties, but that didn’t slow them down one iota, which is another word for scintilla, which is another word for smidgen… okay, I’ll stop now.
One of the great things about playtesting at the Makeshop was the wide variety of users we had access to. The controls were a hit among adults (parents, grandparents, and Makeshop staff alike), and it was a lot of fun watching mixed age groups use the controls together. It was also heart-warming to watch all the kids show their parents how things worked… kids are much better at this sort of thing. They aren’t afraid to just jump in and try things.
We saw quite a few kids come and go during the session, but one awesome kid with big dreams stayed the entire two hours, moving from one control to the next until he had mastered them all.
The Makeshop was an ideal spot for playtesting, and I’d highly recommend it. We liked it so much that we’re coming back… three more times! Stay tuned for the dates of three more playtests over the next two months or so.
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