Anyone who introduces a new solution, whether in industry or education, realises how important the testing phase of any product is.

That is why the partners of the Escape Rooms for Cultural and Creative Industries project have provided the testing of the developed educational games – in each partners’ country groups of young people have been invited to play the games for the first time.

I wanted to share with you some insights from the test day organised in Poland. The event took place live on 28 December 2023 at the Municipal Cultural and Sports Centre in Pyskowice. Young people involved in various artistic and creative activities were invited to the testing workshop: among others, members of an amateur theatre, music group, art and dance clubs. Some of the participants also had previous experience in playing games, so it was also easier to engage them to play the role of Game Masters in Escape Rooms. This helped a lot with the testing.

After an introduction to the general project issues, objectives, scope of project activities, which took place in the auditorium, the participants were divided into two groups and went to two separate smaller rooms. In each, one of the two games created by the Polish partner ARTeria Foundation from Zabrze was tested. Game masters were also assigned to each room to support the players and manage the game itself. The Game Masters were trained in advance on the game by a representative of the ARTeria Foundation.

Participants sat down at tables in even smaller groups. Materials were distributed and the games began.

The question arises as to what elements, from the point of view of the game developers, were primarily tested. Firstly, whether the game scenario is interesting and understandable. Whether it is engaging for the player. Whether the subject matter is interesting.

Secondly, the puzzles themselves, whether they are solvable in the allotted time and whether they lead logically to subsequent puzzles. Whether they are too difficult or too easy.

The duration of the entire game was also tested. Whether it coincides with the planned duration.

In addition, it was observed how the groups worked according to size. The smallest group had two people, and the largest had seven. We tested the optimal group size of the players.

The participants became very involved in the game. There were intense discussions in the groups and it was easy to see a developing cooperation between the players. The pace of solving the puzzles was also quite varied. Those who had already played this type of game before had an advantage.

After the first session and the completion of the first game, most participants continued testing by playing further games.

After completion, the educational value of the game was also examined in the evaluation questionnaires – whether the players learned something from the thematic scope of the game. The evaluation questionnaires were different – different for the players and different for the Game Masters.

The meeting was extremely important in terms of improving the games before their publication in March. It was interesting to hear the comments of the participants, but what was particularly important was that it was possible to notice two groups of participants: those who had played similar games before and had previous experiences, and those for whom this was their first contact with  Escape Room games. The first group made important contributions to improve the puzzles and the game as a whole, while for the second group, the meeting was a discovery of a completely new type of entertainment, which nevertheless has educational elements. This division was also seen in the context of the working together with the Game Master’s  – the first group did not really need hints, while the second group reached for hints more often. In their comments, the participants correctly identified the educational elements of the games and referred to the puzzles they found most interesting.

This was a very valuable and important part of the project development process, and several participants are thinking of creating similar games by themselves!

Such game-testing meetings were organised in all project partnership countries. Their great value – apart from just testing the games – was the broad promotion of the project and the involvement of young people in further playing and learning with such materials.