We got finished with Playtest Day this Saturday with a positive response from our players regarding the layout, mechanics and the visual effects in the level.
The players were able to figure out the puzzles that we set for them and also enjoyed going through the level. We also observed some parts where they got stuck or seemed confused for a while and decided to work on them in the remaining few weeks. Overall it was a really great feedback and response for the team.
What we did this week?
Programming:
- Gameplay:
- Added sound effects: dash, attack, vision change, picking up coins
- Added new UI interfaces and UI animations: quest list, loading scene, damage visual feedback.
- Added enemy vision lock for combat.
- Added controllers as input device: two types of tip texts, update key priority.
- Fixed bugs
- Combat and Enemy Design:
- Reduced the difficulty of the boss fight according to playtest feedback
- Added a ranged attack for the boss and a summon ability for the mage enemy. (As of now, all abilities are implemented)
- Improved the environment query system for the boss, making it use specific arena positions when using certain skills like the magic water bubble and teleport ranged attacks to create a more cinematic boss fight.
- Fixed more bugs with spawning enemies according to playtest feedback
Level Design:
- Based on SME feedback we reworked the entire Act 2 to frame the puzzle better for players
- We made changes to Act 1, adding a new side area for direction guiding, and updating platforming challenges to better flow of the game
- We created a Twine experience for the players to get them caught up with the backstory as well the progress in the game.
- We added a function in our build that gets the data of which chests the player opened in the first part of the level and writes that data on a file. We used this function during our playtest day sessions to get data from players. We will use this data to generate a heatmap of the areas that most of the players noticed, did not notice and make changes to the level.
Art and VFX:
- Added an editor mode for vision-change materials for the convenience of designers.
Color-coded in Editor
Vision-Invisible Objects
Vision-Visible Objects
- Our level has an underwater vibe, so we developed a blueprint that integrates several settings to create this mood and also makes it easier to apply with consistency.
Overall Environment
Blueprint
Production:
- We scheduled a meeting with our consultant to get feedback on our current level.
- We made a pre as well as a post test survey for Playtest day to get answer to the questions we had regarding the level and also went through the data collected at the end and made a task list for what changes to make for softs.
- We recorded our playtest sessions and stored in on our shared drive folder.
Some challenges we faced and their solutions
Programming:
Problems –
- We found that the smaller enemies on the bridge did not seem like enemies to the player initially because of their color and the players only came to know that they were enemies after they attacked them.
- Also, the players were confused about whether to keep running on the bridge or attack the enemies because they were scattered and did not block the player completely.
Solutions-
- We decided to make the color of the enemies red to distinguish them as enemies and also made them appear in swarms together so that they can from a wall like structure to block the player from moving foward, forcing the player to attack them in order to cross the bridge.
Level Design:
Problems –
- We found that if players fell down and died in Act 1 in the starting area, they were not able to figure out which way they came from and which way to go because of everything being in greybox.
Solutions-
- We decided to add a chest right after the cave so that the players notice it during the cinematic and open it. If they open it in the beginning, they can see it from far and know that they have already been there which helped them in wayfinding and we did not have any instance during the playtest day of players being lost in that area.
Things to do for next week:
- Implement the changes decided after playtest day before Softs.
- Playtest with SME to get feedback on the narrative.
- Make the last cinematic at the end to give a closure to the player.
- Fix bugs related to the enemy.
- Add controller support.
- Polish check points in the level.
- Add more VFX to certain items that are important for gameplay.
