As part of the latest Gamasutra feature interview, Playdead CEO Dino Patti and game director Arnt Jensen discuss how they went about testing their hit indie game Limbo, and the sheer number of people who were brought in to try it out.
Over the course of the game's development, Playdead brought "several hundred people" into the office to test the game, reveals Jensen -- around 150 of whom were asked to simply play it for the first time without any direction given from the developers, and who were used for only that one playthrough.
"It was so important," continues Jensen, "We learned so much just sitting and watching people. Usually we didn't say anything. We just give them the controller, and then we sat behind them, and we didn't ask any questions."
However, the team were not interested in whether or not the testers enjoyed the puzzles, but rather cared whether the puzzles were too easy or too difficult.
"We were arrogant enough... We didn't want to know what they were thinking, because we think we're the best to decide what's great. So we didn't ask them anything," he notes.
"We just watched them and saw if they had any problems. That was it. Could they solve the puzzles? What should we do to make it easier to solve them?"
The full interview, which delves into how the game was made and the simplicity running through the game, is now live on Gamasutra.
Limbo was a lot of fun for me being a platformer lover and having a high appreciation for puzzle games and a sucker for any game with atmosphere it is definitely my favorite indie game to date. It made you think but didn't make my head hurt. the visuals were awesome and I will say I have never cared and been so attached to a 2D character in such a short time as I was in this game. Whether it was trying to perfectly time a jump through various obstacles or run away from an enemy making sure our hero made it out alive and my heart fell a little every time i heard a sickening splat, stomach-churning crunch, or saw those beady white eyes fade into the savage darkness that surrounded him. great game one of the best XBLA games I ever purchased and truly one of a few games that I can say that its downfall was it ended too soon .
While I played through Limbo during a gathering of people, another guy played it with a crowd of people watching. It seemed to have been as much fun for the crowd as the guy playing, with their shouts of surprise about each new death and discussion about strategies. I can imagine the devs looking over the shoulder of the playtesters. While the game could have been longer, the great thing about Limbo was that it didn't unnecessarily reuse elements, instead you always faced fresh and new challenges and where an element seemed to be reused (like the spider), there was a completely different aspect to it. The amount of playtesting spent and culling done makes it as polished as Portal was.
"Limbo shots" is now a staple my house parties. We hand the controller to one person and when he/she dies, everyone takes a shot of tequila and he/she hands the controller to the next person.
Most of the time we don't make it past the spider conscious. :P
"Limbo shots" is now a staple my house parties. We hand the controller to one person and when he/she dies, everyone takes a shot of tequila and he/she hands the controller to the next person.
Most of the time we don't make it past the spider conscious. :P
Most of the time we don't make it past the spider conscious. :P
Most of the time we don't make it past the spider conscious. :P