Week 13

On Week 13, the team had their faculty Soft Opening as well as a playtest session with Will from Xpogo.

Soft Opening

On Monday, we had Soft Opening with multiple faculty members. The team received a lot of positive feedback. We also observed some areas that can be improved:

  • Tutorial Section can be overwhelming
    • Mechanics are complicated and needs some time to practice
    • TODO:
      • Stretch out tutorial level; twice as much space, distance, time
      • Get player used to the mechanics
      • Give easy environment first
      • Leave the tutorial question marks there, might forget the mechanics
  • Communicate the launch moment
    • Sound or VFX
  • Confusing: what props needed coins what needed claps
    • TODO: Colored UI for claps and coins and use in-game coin
  • Sliding on ramps
    • TODO: modify friction on material

Playtesting with Will

Will from Xpogo came to ETC for a playtest session after Soft Opening. He gave some feedback from the perspective as a professional pogoer:

  • Rephrase Performance to “Free Style Competition/Run”
  • Some other suggested tricks:
    • Barspin, frenchie, superman, wrap-around, underleg barspin, scissor kick, no-foot cannonball, airwalk, mandy

Animation Update

Based on Will’s suggestions, we added four more pogo tricks in game (woohoo!) – bar spin, wrap around, superman and underleg barspin (ULBS).

To avoid making the mechanics more complicated, we decided against letting the player “switch to a new set of animation” by pressing a button. Instead, each classic tricks button maps to two tricks of the same category, and the two tricks will alternate automatically.

  • Button A – Peg Grabs (No hands peg grab; one foot peg grab)
  • Button B – Underlegs (ULBS; wrap around)
  • Button Y – Air Tricks (B-spence; superman)
  • Button X – Stick Tricks (Stick flip; 360 bar spin)

Bigger and Better Tutorial Level

We separated the tutorial section into a new map. The new tutorial level is also a lot larger, giving the players more time and space to get familiar with mechanics.

Home Sweet Home

We started modeling Bucky’s home 🙂

Next Steps:

  • Finish the game!