Week 10: Almost there!

Hey all!

This weeks update is mostly focused on the feedback received from the beta presentation, and what is going to be done for the final build next week. We also wrote up a feedback document between last week and this week, which can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xT056swgKzo58bP_PkyBfLBqf_U8Kh_xCPxvOnYdpIQ/...

or downloaded on the main page.

In the beta presentation we received a lot of valuable feedback that we had not heard much of before. The feedback mostly focused on the conflicting systems and difficulty of the game, which contrasted greatly to what we had heard from other playtesters as well as during the alpha presentation. The player generally found the bar conflicting system overly punishing, especially when thrown into a difficult level like the main level. One other important piece of feedback the judges gave was that the tutorial could be greatly improved. The tutorial was very text heavy, and none of the text was mandatory to read. Combining the confusing meter system, and it's hard for a new player to tell what is going on without reading the signs.

Overall, we received some very valuable feedback from the beta presentation. We had realised that during the alpha presentation, we gave a longer preamble and played out about half of the tutorial, showing off the different mechanics to the judges. In the beta presentation, we gave a very short preamble and handed the controller over. This led to a lot more confusion on why things were the way that we were. In the alpha presentation it was clear that we wanted conflicting systems as part of the challenge, and our game was supposed to be challenging. This is something that was less clear during the beta presentation, and combined with the poorly made tutorial, led to a lot of frustration and confusion.

From the beta presentation we decided to meet and discuss what we needed to focus on in order to make a fun game by the deadline next week. We concluded that our game needs to greatly improved in teaching the player how to play, since our tutorial was not very clear without reading. We decided to make new tutorial levels, split into one for each ability. These levels should be more clear to the player what they are teaching, even without having to read text. For example, the up level will show only the up meter, and the player will only be able to go up and down, in order to see how the meter works. We hope that by adding these levels, when the player is thrown into the main levels, the game will make more sense.

One other piece of interesting feedback we received was regarding the camera of the levels. We currently we have a 45 degree shifted camera, but the bars charge according the viewed camera axis. Most of our maps are made at an angle, so often the player can charge two bars at the same time. This is something that is also not necessarily clear to the player on first play, so much so that one player actually shifted the map in his mind to try and figure out what they could charge. In order to combat this, we decided to add some parts of the tutorial where the player can only go one direction, and then part of the level where they go at an angle charging two meters. This should help combat the confusion regarding camera angle.

Some other changes that we would like to focus on is adding some stats to the UI. One thing we wanted to add was an enemies left text on screen, to indicate to the player the progress on the level. One piece of feedback we've received multiple times before is that the progression to the player is unknown. Adding this tracker should help combat this issue. One other piece of information we'd like to give the player is the time elapsed on a level. Having a leaderboard of times for each level would be nice to have as a form of competition for players. 

One last thing we want to implement if we have time is reworking the meter drain mechanic. Currently, using an ability when you have insufficient meter "farts" the ability, resetting your meter to 0 without the ability activating. Some players have found this annoying, but the "fart" mechanic is a required mechanic to beat some levels. If time permits, we'd like to add farting to a trigger, for example pressing trigger + up face button to remove all meter in the up direction. This would be very convenient for the player, and then you would be able to know that you are intentionally farting. 

Overall, we'd like to focus on revamping the tutorial so the player is less confused when they go on to the main levels. Other things to add would mostly be nice to haves, but we'll see what we have time for. 

That's all for this week! Look forward to the final release!