I used a computer to connect to the version control system, to create a storage place to save all my data, and develop the code from our class game. The computer was mainly used to get input on our game and to assess the perceived difficulty of the game. I created a survey sheet to get people to rate the difficulty of the first level of our game. Once the survey was created, I started to search the campus for volunteers to play and test the game difficulty. After I got my data I used Microsoft Excel, to create a value histogram to show the results of the experiment.
Results and Discussion
Figure 1. Perceived difficulty as a function of the player's bullet speed
Of the 10 people that tested the game out, only approximately 25% of them thought the game was too easy and suggested the difficulty level should be a bit harder. The rest of the participants thought the game difficulties were in the middle range, not too easy or not too hard. Because most of them thought the games were of medium difficulty, the game was balanced. This is shown by the symmetrical histograms in Figure 1 and Figure 2 that displays a normal curve.
Most of the participants started to like the game at a more difficult level because it made the game more of a challenge and therefore, more fun or slightly addicting to them. Although the game was mostly rated as fun, some of the participants thought the game was very difficult.