Testing the 1st Test Build & Planning

Last week we made a build to test with players that haven’t played the game before, from it we noted some things that need improving but also we learned that the game is in better state than we expected. After the tests we sat down and prepared for the next development cycle after which we started working following the new plan.

The build we used for the tests contained the six levels with all the most up-to-date, it was stable with the only bugs we were aware of being very minor. The first learning to mention is the fact that some of the levels were not guiding the players as I wanted, especially levels 3 and 5.

In the beginning of level 3 the player’s attention isn’t being called towards the south area as I intended. This partially happens because players didn’t understand they can go down as mentioned by them, but also because the elements I’m using to guide their view aren’t working. To tackle the first issue we plan to implement two changes, modifying the color of the walls in walkable steps and changing the rout of the enemy at the entrance to the south area. Their new route includes them going up and down that initial step. This change not only helps communicate to the player they can do the same but also call their attention towards that area.

In level 5 the guiding issue is that the end point is being confused with the start point. Initially I had assumed that the closed door and environmental stair asset would communicate to the players that this was the direction of the exit, even if they started close to it. As this premise proved wrong I will make some visual changes to the map to indicate the direction they came from to start the level and will add some other elements to make the exit call the players attention more. I want to iterate on this as fast as possible as this was the only issue that all testers had in common and if it requires a change to the general layout of the level it is important to do it as soon as I can.

Current start point in Lv 5

We also learned that some sections of the game are harder than intended, at least for the first city in the game. We noted this on very specific sections of the levels, not everywhere. In general the difficulty balance seems to be good. Also, after analyzing these parts, the changes needed to balance this seem to be simple.

An issue that we were already suspecting but that was confirmed with the tests was that some of the HP collectables do not call the player’s attention. This doesn’t happen with all collectables to the same degree, but happens enough to be an issue. The fix we planned is to add a hovering and rotating animation to them. We want the player to be able to notice these but not to call their attention so much that it becomes distracting. By the end of the week I implemented this change using the Blue Prints and it seems to work just as we wanted!

With the enemies we only found one gameplay issue, this being that it isn’t 100% clear the area in which they can damage the player. This issue was particularly present with the rotating enemies but it also applied to the patrolling enemies under some circumstances. The fix we have planned for this is to mark the tile that is being affected with a red outline and only when the enemy is causing damage.

From the programming side we noted some bugs we didn’t know about, some being more important than others but nothing game breaking. 

Finally it is important to reiterate that at the end of the play session everyone that played the game noted that they had a lot of fun and asked if there was more to play. We really needed to hear that as we were starting to feel like that game was in a way worse state than it actually was. This also helps us to know that we are going in the right direction and that no major changes are needed.

Next week we are going to continue implementing the fixes and changes we defined after the tests. As we have some time limitations this week due to external factors we don’t know how much it will take us to have the next build ready but we want it to be as soon as possible. Once we have a build that is functionally behaving as we want, we will proceed to polish it to look great and then publish it on itch for people to play.