When I gave people a chance to try my game, they were generally able to figure it out easily. From my experience during the midterm project, I learned that providing clear instructions is very important, and I applied that lesson here. At first, players were surprised to see apples used as controllers, but I am happy with this decision because it made the game more engaging and encouraged curiosity. The instructions I provided explaining that the red apple moves the character to the right and the green apple moves the character to the left made it easy for them to understand the mapping between the controls and the game actions.
One small point of confusion was that I wrote “touch the apple,” but in practice, players needed to press or squish the apple for the character to move. This is something I can clarify better in the instructions for future users.The part of the game that worked well was moving the character from one side to another, as it felt natural and responsive. Another improvement suggested during user testing was related to catching items: originally, the character caught food near her legs at the very bottom of the screen, but after the suggestion, I moved the catch area so it aligns better with the character’s position. This made the game feel more intuitive and enjoyable.
The part of the experience that required more explanation was how the apples work as physical controllers. While users understood the concept after reading the instructions, I could improve this by adding a visual cue or short tutorial in the game showing how to press the apples to move the character. Overall, clear instructions, intuitive controls, and small adjustments based on user feedback made the game easy to understand and engaging, but highlighting the physical interaction more clearly could improve the first-time experience.
Please see below the user testing video: