Table 3.

Playability violations and game changes.

Playability heuristic	Evidence of violation	Game change
GP5: There are no repetitive or boring tasks	Participants felt bored and disengaged with the animation when the first half of the story line was repeated. Video footage demonstrated that players did not realize they could skip the recap by tapping anywhere on the screen.	On the second playthrough, a title screen appears with the text “Previously on Battle in the Blood…Skip?”
GU1: Audio-visual representations support the game	Players reported the icons as unintuitive because the color of the icons did not correspond with the combat status bars that they effected. Video footage showed players taking decisions based solely on the length of the chain, not the color of the icons, and becoming frustrated when they repeatedly lost a level.	The design of the icons was adjusted to correspond visually with the attack and defense bars.
GU11: The game contains help	Participants did not feel that the onboarding was comprehensive enough, and new mechanics in the game were not explained.	When a new game mechanic is triggered, a dialog box appears that explains the new mechanic using a small amount of text and images. This information can also be accessed via the game’s menu and via the level-pause screen.
GP6: The players can express themselves	Participants stated that they did not like the mechanical suit as they had spent time customizing the avatar but rarely saw it in the game as most of it was covered.	Avatar appears animated in the level-complete or -fail screen.
GP2: The player is rewarded, and the rewards are meaningful; GP5: There are no repetitive or boring tasks	Participants stated that they wanted to be able to earn in-game currency by completing the levels, which could be spent on upgrading or customizing their character. They also felt this would make the gameplay feel less repetitive.	Implementing an in-game currency system and custom character upgrades would have required additional resources and delayed the planned launch of the game. The change request was logged but not implemented for the pilot.