My friends at catlab interactive did a playtest session to improve their newest game QuizWitz. Ken asked me to join the session but I was on vacation when the event took place. So I made a promise to check his game. You can check the results of their playtest session here. |
the first impressionFor my playtest, I played the version on there website. www.quizwitz.com The first thing I noticed was the nice art work. It looks great and I really love the art style. When I start, I just hit a few buttons and I'm starting a quiz already. But then my interest starts to wear off. |
You can only play 10 quiz rounds. If you want more questions and rounds, you need to log in to the forum. And to make it worse, after a while I can't seem to click anything anymore.
So I decided to register and log in to the community to see if there is more to it.
And yes, you can add more quiz rounds to your game. But I immediately saw that there is a limited amount of quiz rounds and most of the rounds are made by catlab themselves. Although I know that tey are still working on the game, the game itself feels already abandoned.
A quick view at the lenses of "the art of game design" tells me that the game can still be improved a lot. It lacks juiciness, goals and a good interest curve. It's such a shame because the logo, the art and the start of the game are really inviting.
So I decided to register and log in to the community to see if there is more to it.
And yes, you can add more quiz rounds to your game. But I immediately saw that there is a limited amount of quiz rounds and most of the rounds are made by catlab themselves. Although I know that tey are still working on the game, the game itself feels already abandoned.
A quick view at the lenses of "the art of game design" tells me that the game can still be improved a lot. It lacks juiciness, goals and a good interest curve. It's such a shame because the logo, the art and the start of the game are really inviting.
According to inquisitr, catlab is aiming to improve the convenience and simplicity. I guess they achieved their goal with QuizWitz, but they still have a major concern with localization. The language barrier is hard to break through. That's why those quiz games with pictures are spreading so easely.
A second obstacle is the customer productivity. My guess is that they hoped that the players would start making quiz round. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't seem to turn out this way.
A second obstacle is the customer productivity. My guess is that they hoped that the players would start making quiz round. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't seem to turn out this way.
For whom the game is actually made? Who are their customers and non-customers?
My girlfriend and I are competing in some quiz from time to time. You know, the events where you join with friends as a team. We organized a quiz ones and where asked to test a quiz 2 times. And we actually have a lot of quiz show on TV here in Belgium.
So you can say that there is a small group of die hard quiz makers, a larger group of quiz players, people that don't like quiz games very much and the unknown customers.
The die hard fans will not play the game or make any quiz rounds because the game is way to limited. A normal quiz consist of rounds, different scoring systems, jokers, a variation of themes and gameplay,...
More casual players will not play it long because of the monotonous gameplay.
So who are they actually aiming for?
My girlfriend and I are competing in some quiz from time to time. You know, the events where you join with friends as a team. We organized a quiz ones and where asked to test a quiz 2 times. And we actually have a lot of quiz show on TV here in Belgium.
So you can say that there is a small group of die hard quiz makers, a larger group of quiz players, people that don't like quiz games very much and the unknown customers.
The die hard fans will not play the game or make any quiz rounds because the game is way to limited. A normal quiz consist of rounds, different scoring systems, jokers, a variation of themes and gameplay,...
More casual players will not play it long because of the monotonous gameplay.
So who are they actually aiming for?
The 6 path framework is a bit better, but nearly not enough to make a big difference.
Looking across alternative industries, did they look at TV shows, teacher exams, quiz events etc. ?
Looking across strategic groups, is it an app or a game? How many quiz games are there? Can you implement more game mechanics from other game genres?
Who is interested in the game? The buyer, player or the influencer?
Catlab clearly realised that players need more devices and bigger screens if they want to play in group. So that's good.
I don't know about the functional / emotional orientation of the game. The inviting art seems more emotional, but the ease of use is more functional oriented.
Looking across alternative industries, did they look at TV shows, teacher exams, quiz events etc. ?
Looking across strategic groups, is it an app or a game? How many quiz games are there? Can you implement more game mechanics from other game genres?
Who is interested in the game? The buyer, player or the influencer?
Catlab clearly realised that players need more devices and bigger screens if they want to play in group. So that's good.
I don't know about the functional / emotional orientation of the game. The inviting art seems more emotional, but the ease of use is more functional oriented.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that the game lacks focus. The aesthetics are telling me this is a game, but the mechanics are more of that of a school exam.
There are a fair amount of quiz games and quiz maker programs on the internet. A good strategy canvas would be a great help to differentiate from the crowd.
You have the simple logo quiz games that do well. And then you have the quiz maker apps.
QuizUp is the game QuizWitz wants to be, but you need tons of content for that.
My advice would be to either make the game very simple like the logo quiz games. But since they invested so much in the mechanics and technology it seems better if they go for the quiz maker game.
The interest curve must be improved a lot so that the game doesn't get boring. Increasing the score at the end of the round, give the player only 1 minute time to answer as much questions as he can or don't just ask questions but use pictures instead.
And try to implement more game mechanics of other games like pictionary, tetris, hangman, jigsaw puzzle etc. You can use these mechanics at the end of a round so that the player can score extra points.
They should also be prepared to make a lot of questions. Because no quiz rounds means no game.
There are a fair amount of quiz games and quiz maker programs on the internet. A good strategy canvas would be a great help to differentiate from the crowd.
You have the simple logo quiz games that do well. And then you have the quiz maker apps.
QuizUp is the game QuizWitz wants to be, but you need tons of content for that.
My advice would be to either make the game very simple like the logo quiz games. But since they invested so much in the mechanics and technology it seems better if they go for the quiz maker game.
The interest curve must be improved a lot so that the game doesn't get boring. Increasing the score at the end of the round, give the player only 1 minute time to answer as much questions as he can or don't just ask questions but use pictures instead.
And try to implement more game mechanics of other games like pictionary, tetris, hangman, jigsaw puzzle etc. You can use these mechanics at the end of a round so that the player can score extra points.
They should also be prepared to make a lot of questions. Because no quiz rounds means no game.