I tested the game in the landmarks for the second time today. It is notable to mention that the tester was very familiar with Dundee, which changed the game experience notably.

What stood out to me was that when if you’re very familiar with Dundee, the game becomes frustrating. You know where everything is, but you don’t quite remember so you still have to walk there, even if you know exactly where it is. I also learnt new shortcuts around Dundee while on this playtest, so that also is an exciting discovery: If you know the shortcuts around town you’re going to be able to go through the riddles faster, and essentially speedrun the game. This would be interesting if I was considering a competitive aspect to the game.

The tester picked up on the main character being dead on their own, which was good.

What stood out was that, in the beginning, you go to McManus, and after that, Slessor Gardens, and this was too long a distance to put to the very beginning of game, as it made the player want to use the hint instead of go to the environment.

The walk prompted the playtester to start solving the riddle on the way, thought.

The traffic lights remained to be frustrating while playing the game. They are like loading screens.

The crows were met with Glee by the playtester.

It turns out you cannot use Google Maps to find solutions to most of these.

Going across the Tay being mentioned prompted the tester to quickly panic that the game would actually take the player there, so I might want to think about the wording there.

The ghost gaining legs made the playtester doubt if she is dead after all.

The tester was very involved in the story and wanted to know how it ends.

Also, one feedback was very valuable - the Waterfront Gardens riddle is based on hearing in a game that is mostly about seeing. It’s also solvable without going there. So, in there, there’s a giant whale statue above. So I changed the riddle into:

And the answer is whale.

But that might not work, I’ll have to test it with someone who doesn’t know Dundee as well as the previous tester.

The testing also pointed out some logical mistakes in the games’ writing, which to I’ll get to fix later.