https://www.toyfulgames.com/very-very-valet
Very Very Valet is a madcap couch co-op party game - all drivers welcome!
1 to 4 Players control an "elite" team of puppet Valets to overcome any and all valet-related challenges. You’ll need teamwork and "park it anywhere" mentality to solve this severe parking crisis - time to become a VERY VERY VALET!
MADCAP COUCH CO-OP
Valet alone or with friends! Up to four players can work together to solve this severe parking shortage. Help each other and hitch a ride, or cause chaos launching your fellow valets wildly - the choice is yours!
Role: Playtester
My contribution to Very Very Valet was playtesting a version that was about halfway completed. This version had glaring problems that the designer Tim FitzRandolph also had suspicions towards but needed validating through playtesting from others.
The discrepancies that I noticed were confusion in player goals due to a lack of indications and unclear numerical information. This meant I wasn’t sure if what I was doing earned me points or not.
Another problem that I experienced when testing was if what seemed like objects to avoid were power-ups. It was uncertain in my experience that items picked up proved beneficial in any capacity, this was mentioned to the team.
The last note was the playable tutorial and the objectives/ taught gameplay features as a first-time user. I did not know how to play, even after the tutorial. Movement was pretty confusing and that was a huge barrier of entry in a game where players are supposed to drive cars.
The learnings from this project were that visual indicators are massively helpful in communicating goals and objectives in digital games. This concept was something I knew as a player, but it helped me validate the idea that you really can’t go wrong with visual indicators to gently nudge players in the right direction.
The playtesting methods I used in this game differed slightly from how I approached playtesting before. I spoke my ideas as I played through, talking about what didn’t make sense in real-time, as opposed to other styles of playtesting I had done in the past. I specifically reserved my player experience and things that stood out for the end of my session. I learned this method of pointing out issues I had that were confusing when they happened, and it was extremely successful for the type of feedback needed to elevate the game.