Playtest Report
During playtesting, there seemed to be a few issues that were common among the testers. One of these was confusion over the game’s controls. A lack of instructions on game controls made it difficult for the players to play and use all available abilities. This could also be an issue of usability and intuitiveness of the controls that are being used.
Another common issue was in regards to the learning curve of the game’s mechanics. The all-white levels were confusing for some players. And while other players were able to understand that there was a “point A to point B” type goal in the game, early levels need to better explain such things as the goal, trails, explosions, invisible platforms and traps.
The red pick-up in the level was another issue. It was a placeholder object with no function at the moment though the initial idea was as a health item. However, it did raise some issues as to its potential uses and what players would like to see it do with it being either a collectable item or an item that reveals more of the area being popular choices.
Sound was mentioned by a few testers, one commenting on its lack and another on its lack of fitting with the game.
A few points of difference among the playtesters arose in regards to the actual paint/explosion mechanics. Some thought the explosions were good and the range sufficient in the area it revealed. Others thought the range and revealing could be improved upon as well as the aesthetics/realism of the paint/explosions. A point in this part was made that the items being revealed could be made more clear/defined for the player so they would be more aware of what was there.
Changes to be made
1. 1. Instructions to be conveyed to the player, either through a straight instruction splash screen or within the game levels itself.
2. 2. Controls to be adjusted and made more easily usable or intuitive
3. 3. Early levels will be structured to ramp up player knowledge, either through visible objects/traps or some other element
4. 4.The pick-up will be redefined and implemented
5. 5.Sounds to be included
6. 6.Explosion effects to be refined
7. 7.Trap models or paint effects to be changed to give player more definition of the area/objects
8. 8.Improvement to the level transitions
9. 9.Improvement to the jumping mechanics
10. Include death-count per level, so that it creates some tension.
11. Add moving traps .
10. Include death-count per level, so that it creates some tension.
11. Add moving traps .
10.
Play Testing
So after play testing the tester did not know what to do at first just like in any other games, but after they had figure out what was happening or going on in the game they where hooked. The good thing they did not get frustrated which would have been bad. After playing for a while one of the testers figure out if the level was easy enough like level one in the game he would keep on double jumping from one end of the level to another, which of course was the main idea behind the first level to get the excited. But unfortunately trying the same trick in the second level did not work... I stood there watching and laughing, that's right i was laughing. But they got through the level after multiple tries.
But they suggested that resetting the health after you dies is good if there was a certain number of deaths in each level. I know dieing is the main core of the game but some how we should find a way to penalize the player for dieing to much. Because i noticed that all they could do is run into stuff and die knowing that their health will reset and they will loose nothing for dieing, meaning there is not much tension in the game. If they we had death counts per level that will create some tensions and strategy for the player on how they are going to reveal the environment. Also some of the traps should be moving back and forth.
Thanks guys.
Brian
Play Testing
So after play testing the tester did not know what to do at first just like in any other games, but after they had figure out what was happening or going on in the game they where hooked. The good thing they did not get frustrated which would have been bad. After playing for a while one of the testers figure out if the level was easy enough like level one in the game he would keep on double jumping from one end of the level to another, which of course was the main idea behind the first level to get the excited. But unfortunately trying the same trick in the second level did not work... I stood there watching and laughing, that's right i was laughing. But they got through the level after multiple tries.
But they suggested that resetting the health after you dies is good if there was a certain number of deaths in each level. I know dieing is the main core of the game but some how we should find a way to penalize the player for dieing to much. Because i noticed that all they could do is run into stuff and die knowing that their health will reset and they will loose nothing for dieing, meaning there is not much tension in the game. If they we had death counts per level that will create some tensions and strategy for the player on how they are going to reveal the environment. Also some of the traps should be moving back and forth.
Thanks guys.
Brian
Playtest
*Note* This was with version 0.1.0.
Both of my testers have heard about the game before they have played it. Starting off in the white world wasn't really a shock to either of them. Both also just ran through the first level with out using any paint and where a little confused with what they had done. The first tester did not like how the character exploded. He felt that the splashes did not look real and also thought that they did not cover an area well. Tester 2 also felt that if something kills you, that thing should be revealed so that the player can avoid it next turn. Tester 1 went into great detail about us needing a paint throwing mechanic... until I told him there was one. Once again he felt that the paint throw did not create an effectively visible area. He suggested that an area should be revealed like the paint trail does only from the contact point of the thrown blob with the ground. Neither tester knew what the Red pick up was. Tester 2 even thought that the pick up killed him at one point. While Tester 2 was playing, I played the song I had selected for the game. He said it could work, but it was a "lil marchy, the game doesn't feel that repetitive like the song did" So I guess the song will do for now, but we might need a different song for a final project. Tester 1 also expressed an interest in having a collectible item in the level. Maybe you pick up a new paint color or get more paint.
Josh Campbell
Playtest
*Note* This was with the 0.0.8 version. The paint did not work in version 0.0.9The blankness of the screen initially confused my test subject. The first pit did not help either because she did not get immediate feedback from falling into it. The goal of the level (to reach the end) was not immediately apparent, and neither was the fact that the "pickup" was an item. She eventually learned, however, to stay on the paths she previously had made and managed to reach the end of the level. The subject seemed to be confused throughout, but did appear to enjoy figuring out the layout of the level.
My second subject picked up the game much more quickly. He managed to finish the game on his second life. He was also confused by the slow respawn time after falling into the first pit.
Bob Juranek
- Ted Molinski said...
- A guess onto why the paint doesn't work in Version 0.0.9 is because I had the "Toggle the toggle" enabled. So if you play on Version 0.0.9 you need to press the "f" key to start painting, but thats a guess. Good feedback by the way.
Playtest
My first subject had a little difficulty figuring out the controls for the shooting and toggling the paint trail on/off. They suggested either the player should be provided with written instructions or the information should be presented in the game in some fashion. They felt that the level designs weren't using enough of the space that the player was being presented with. When it was pointed out that these levels would act more as tutorial levels, she understood the lack of using all the space but suggested that there should still be at least one trap in the first level that the player would hit in order to explain the mechanics of the game better and that the difficulty scalability could be improved between levels. She enjoyed the general mechanics and the explosions. She felt that the explosions were a good cause and effect and that they helped to lessen any negativity towards dying since the player was rewarded at the same time. She also enjoyed the paint trail aspects when the player is moving as it provided a sense of creating something on the part of the player but she didn't understand why it was tied into the health or if that was necessary. The pickup that was currently in game had no function but a discussion afterwards of possibilities (health, points, etc), the player leaned towards an exploding object that helped reveal more of the world. While she understood that the point of the game was to go from point a to point b, in the discussion afterwards she stated that she would also enjoy just jumping around and filling out the level. She also would have liked some music in there as well.The second subject had an easier time figuring out the controls but that was likely in part due to the first subject's antics when she was figuring out the controls. While this was the case, he also would have preferred instructions of some kind. He liked the simplicity of the game, attributing a sense of old style Nintendo games. He felt that the jumping was a bit off and unresponsive at times. He didn't care for the obstacles being invisible or that the explosions only gave an outline of the obstacles. In the discussion afterwards, he suggested that the obstacles become more filled in when an explosion occurred. He also commented on the learning curve of the initial levels, suggesting that we begin with visible obstacles/traps and then make them invisible in the next level while introducing a new visible one and so on.
Raymond Tan
Playtest
So for my subject I asked her to think out loud while playing and I only explained to her the controls of how to play before hand. During the first play through I didn't say anything while she played and the second time I told her some a few things to take note of like the health up top.First playthrough
During the first level some of the things that she had said were: "the controls are wierd", "ohhh shooting is cool!", "what is that red thing?", "is this the new level?", "whoa explosions are cool!", "why do I keep dying?", "do these paint blobs kill me?", "where am I?", and "whoa what did that do?". Controls seemed awkward for her. Streaking was barely used and she seemed to not understand why it was useful. She was unaware of what was killing her when running into the spikes on the second level. She was confused with the level transition from the first to the second. She was excited whenever there was an explosion and thought it was really cool. She was happy to beat the second level. She also had no idea what the red power up was.
Second playthrough
During this she had a much better concept of the game. She realized what streaking was useful for and used it a few times to get over the spikes on the second level. She was completely clueless on what the health power up did until I told her after the testing. She was telling me how the blobs were going through some of the objects, but I realized why this was happening and its because I changed the render settings from Good to Fastest and this caused some strange issues with the gravity of the things.
Post Game Interview
I asked her what she thought about the game and said it was really confusing on what to do in the beginning. The controls made it a bit more confusing to play the game, she said that really good instructions need to inform the player on when to use these certain abilities to help the player advance. She didn't like how the blobs went through things to the other side (this is a my bad for changing a setting without testing it myself). She also thought the controls should maybe customizable or changed to something easier. After that I asked her about the red power up and she was clueless onto what it was, so I told her. She thought that was cool but then I threw the idea of what if these were collectibles or an explosion to reveal more of the world to the player. She thought both of those were really good ideas. She mentioned how it might be cool to change the paint globs that stick to spikes a different color to warn the player better of what lies ahead. The final question I asked was about dying for the first time because she was confused whenever it would happen. She told me that after dying the first time the thought of spikes popped into her head.
Ted Molinski
