Session 02: Tools for Measuring Objectives
Hi there. Welcome to this design session. These informal notes are dedicated to working out the mechanics for movement in CQ StoryHammer Games.
Today I’ll be trying to come up with ways to measure the objectives for the project. Here are the objectives I came up with the last session:
Goal: By the end of this project, I will have a set of instructions that explains to players how moving through zones works.
Objective 1: The format is digital, using the same platform that this objective was written within.
Objective 2: Each visual element incorporated in the rules is necessary for teaching the rules.
Objective 3: This set of instructions will only teach movement mechanics (and assume any other rules not directly tied to movement will be explained elsewhere.
Objective 4: Ensure the instructions are not confusing.
Objective 5: Ensure the instructions don’t contain “off switches”.
Objective 6: Ensure the instructions contain original content which remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.
The first objective is a little weird in hindsight. Specifically, I’m not sure why the instructions need to be created using the same platform as these sessions. The objectives were created while testing out various note-taking platforms so it’s possible I conflated two different project objectives.
These instructions should live on the CQ StoryHammer website at http://storyhammer.cryptiquest.com. I’ll update the objective as follows:
Objective 1: The instructions will be digital, living on CQ StoryHammer’s website.
And regarding measuring the success, this is a simple boolean check. This is either done or it isn’t.
The second objective is also a little weird – or at least it reads weird. The intention was to try to limit graphical elements to only those that are needed to support the instructions. I can rewrite this as follows.
Objective 2: The instructions only contain visual elements when they are necessary for teaching the rules.
This objective is a judgement call and can only be measured through subjective means. Unless there was a separate checklist to test each image against? Something like the following:
- Does this graphic demonstrate mechanics for the rules?
- Are the rules less clear without the graphic?
Something like that. I think it will work. I will add this as a new tool that is required.
The third objective will be a boolean, like the first. The fourth objective will require a matrix survey (as discussed in this project) and the fifth one will make use of the “off switch” checklist discussed in the same project. Both of those tools haven’t been made yet so I’ll add that to the list of deliverables.
The sixth objective was sort of left as “I don’t know how to measure this” in the project referenced in the previous paragraph. And I still don’t know how to measure it. I suppose I can, instead, come up with a way to identify each and every piece of content and then do an online search to see if anything comes up – but even that isn’t fool-proof. I have some legal copy from a previous project. I could try to see if that could apply here and perhaps make a checklist for each chunk of content? I’ll add this as a tool to make.
Here is where the project stands now:
Goal: By the end of this project, I will have a set of instructions that explains to players how moving through zones works.
Objective 1: The instructions will be digital, living on CQ StoryHammer’s website.
Objective 2: The instructions only contain visual elements when they are necessary for teaching the rules.
Objective 3: This set of instructions will only teach movement mechanics (and assume any other rules not directly tied to movement will be explained elsewhere.
Objective 4: Ensure the instructions are not confusing.
Objective 5: Ensure the instructions don’t contain “off switches”.
Objective 6: Ensure the instructions contain original content which remains the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.
Tool 1: Graphic checklist
Tool 2: Quality matrix survey
Tool 3: Off-switch checklist
Tool 4: Content ownership checklist
Okay. The next step will be to plot out the deliverables for this project then the steps and timeframes. See you in the next session!