Week 10

On Week 10, the team went though two rounds of playtesting, one with middle school students, and another one during ETC Playtest Day. The team finished the majority of their gameplay.

Character Art Update

We finished the complete “performance outfit” that player can collect around the environment. We also added many trick animations for the character.

Main Level Update

We started the process of swapping in models for the main level to make the environment more vibrant and alive. The new stylized skybox has also been added in.

Tutorial Section

To prepare for the Playtest Day, the team implemented a full Tutorial Section for the game to guide the player. One of the goals of playtesting this week is to see if this Tutorial Section is self-explanatory enough to teach the mechanics of the game to the players. 

Demo Video

Below is the demo video for week 10, including tutorial section, tutorial level (to be renamed soon), and main level.

Thursday Playtest with Middle School Students

On Thursday, the team had a playtest session with Middle School Students. We received positive feedback from the playtesters, as well as some valuable feedback. In particular, one valuable suggestion we adopted was changing the Advanced Tricks mechanics from rapid tapping to holding.

ETC Saturday Playtest

On Saturday, the team had the important ETC Playtest Day. We had the opportunity to thoroughly test out our current experience with many groups of players. 

We went into the playtest day with particular goals in mind. Mainly, we wanted to see player’s reaction and feedback to:

  • Tutorial Section
  • UI clarity
  • Gameplay and narrative

We created a survey that targets these areas and organized the feedback from the collected surveys:

Tutorial Section Feedback:

  • Player were able to get and make use of most of the mechanics
    • Boost and Front flip helped with navigation significantly
    • Player enjoyed doing tricks
  • Player was not able to get Double Jump -> Advanced trick -> Outfit game flow
  • Tutorial section could reinforce each mechanics more
    • Player tend to forget either boost or flip when encountering the first difficult obstacle

Tutorial Section Next Steps:

For advanced trick:

  • Simplify advanced trick mechanics: rapid tap -> hold
  • Add visual indicator to remind player of advanced tricks after a double jump
  • Add visual indicator for the progress of an advanced trick

For tutorial section:

  • Spread out the tutorials more and give player more “hand holding”

UI Feedback and Next Steps:

  • The collection UI needed to be more clarified
    • Use the shape of in-game models
    • Change to colored image once player collects an item
    • Differentiate Coins and Cheers with color

Gameplay and Narrative Feedback:

  • People were able to get the goal of the game
  • Player were not too sure about where the performance stage was, or if they saw it they weren’t sure what the purpose was

Gameplay and Narrative Next Steps:

  • More guidance to the stage
  • Once illustrations are implemented, player should have a better understanding of the overall goal

We also received overwhelming positive feedback. In particular, the art, the addictive gameplay won people’s heart.

Next Steps:

Priority:

  • Adjust game based on playtest feedback
  • Polish general gameplay
  • Polish performance gameplay
  • Implement timed event “race home” gameplay

Stretch Goals:

  • Add grind edges
  • Falling from pogo from tricks
  • Stalling
  • Wall jump
  • Keyboard adaption