During Week 10 of our animation for the Creative Industries module, we finally got around to having our playtest presentation, where we got the opportunity to play the other groups’ game projects and give feedback through surveys and verbal feedback. As the playtest required two members from each group to host their game and collect feedback, I volunteered for mine as judging from previous presentations, I was the most adept at public speaking and advertising our game project to the class. The Games Design group member who also volunteered, Shaun, handled setting up the project, which I then took over at a later point due to Shaun needing to step out.
In addition, I also heavily observed all playtester gameplay, and took down notes on everything that I saw them do within the game, which I then formatted and sent to my group members as a list of fixes and improvements we should make for the final product. I split the playtest notes into a ‘Games Design’ and ‘Animation’ section, and created sub groups for specific areas of gameplay. In addition, I highlighted and underlined points of interest in the list, to break up the information and help my group understand my notes as clearly as possible.
Below are the playtest notes that I had formatted and sent to my group members, reccomending that we try and fix as much as possible before the industry playtest the following week.
Game Design
Gameplay
-Most players did not understand the controls for the game when starting. Needed to be verbally explained by the two working the playtest, which will not work for a final product as the textbox approach “is gibberish to a player who hasn’t seen the game”. This also applies to the minigames.
*See my Sea Bunny Dialogue document for an outline on how the tutorial should work.
-Players struggled as the control scheme required them to constantly move their hands between the keyboard and mouse. Controls need to be updated to avoid players moving their hands away. Either keyboard only or keyboard and mouse with a well-defined control scheme.
-Players consistently got caught on the ladders, especially at the beginning of the playtest. Pressing E to open the door causes them to rise up on the ladder.
-Players didn’t know how to open doors without direction. Due to issues with the ladders, it would be easier if the doors opened automatically instead.
-The sprint mechanic was barely used by many playtesters, many not knowing it was a mechanic despite the stamina bar on the screen. Needs to be communicated either through a tutorial segment, or by making the stamina bar more prominent in the UI.
–Jump is too floaty for our closed in environment. Character should be able to jump high enough to reach the next floor, in-game they’re able to jump from the first floor to the third with ease, which is more obtrusive to our player’s navigation. Character also needs to drop faster.
-Players were not able to access the underwater cave section at all during the playtest.
–Sea Bunny Pop ups kept repeating over and over, and text did not match what was currently happening in the game.
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Minigames
-Lecturer stated navigation’s functions are unclear due to UI, additional movement is needed for each path, and including a “Depart” button was recommended.
-Game needs arrows in the UI to point players in the direction of minigames that need to be done.
-A minigame mechanic to reduce the water level in the submarine is needed to give the player more strategic control.
-Several playtesters didn’t know which props were minigames, some passed the vents, others thought the lockers were a minigame. Arrows are also not eye catching enough, several of them clipping through the floor.
A different visual indicator needs to be used, e.g. a glow around the prop, a flashing light or a flashing “!” icon in front of them.
-Minigames also need to be shown in the full view camera of the submarine.
–Failed minigames is not apparent to players. Sound effects are not enough, a visual indicator of failure is required.
-Pipe minigame was inaccessible to some players. Needs fixed.
-Simon Says minigame has a glitch where if the player accesses it whilst moving, the playable character keeps running until they hit the wall. Needs fixed.
-Some players got tripped up at Simon Says. The buttons flash too fast for players to register and due to it resetting when a wrong button is hit without a visual indicator, further confusion is made. Button flashes need to be slowed down for better player retention.
-The squid minigame is too spammable, players who accessed it just rapidly clicked on the squid without tightening the screws, there’s no challenge to the minigame.
In addition, the squid moving up gives the impression the player has to keep them from reaching the top of the vent, however it then moves back down. Visuals are too confusing, needs to be redone.
-The jewels in the crane minigame often spawned on top of each other, muddying the visuals and hiding some jewels from sight, needs to be more readable by the player.
-Crane minigame also needs its controls changed to button inputs. The controls on the top of the screen draw the players eye away from the crane and jewels themselves, meaning they can’t see when they need to drop the claw. Can become frustrating to players.
-Some players struggled with the Water Level minigame due to the speed, all three stages can be reduced slightly.
-Players did not understand the Sonar minigame. Ended up being skipped by several players.
–Sea Bunny glitching mechanic needs to be implemented.
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Sequence breaks
-Several playtesters did not start the submarine first, several were able to leave navigation and play the minigames without the water rising at all. Player should not be able to activate minigames until submarine is in motion.
-After starting Navigation, players were able to interact with it again and select another course. Should not be possible when the submarine is in motion.
–Bottom left of the map, player was able to fall out of the submarine, fix this.
Animation
Background
-Background needs to seamlessly repeat, the seam is visible to players when the sub is in motion.
Character Animations
–Character animations need to be cleaned up, were described as “jittery”. Additional animations like climbing & swimming also need to be implemented.
Sea Bunny Animations
-Sea Bunny animations need to be fixed.
-Several frames are missing.
-All expressions need to be implemented.
-Sea Bunny needs to be bigger to fit the hologram frame, in addition they need to line up properly. Also needs to be over the scanlines.
-Hologram frame needs to be added.