Friday 2.9 | Playtesting

Platformer Prototype

Having my classmates test the prototype and end up with a lot of great feedback. Sharing thoughts about the process as well as the future of this project.

Expectations vs reality

Developing the prototype for 3 months without playtesting or much feedback made me ready for some big surprises that might come up. I didn't come up with any questions beforehand, instead I just wanted to interfere as little as possible and then plot down every time I had to comment (and oh boy did I end up doing that). I thought there would be only a small part of the interfering caused by technical bugs and most by lack of clear instructions. The split ended up being more of a 50/50, which might have been caused by testing the build on Thursday and doing changes after without testing them in the build.

The lack of feedback probably showed most in the difficulty of the sections early on. I've been going through them like a speedrunner using the fastest path forgetting the alternatives completely. This caused one route to be a total deadend. In the figure below, route #1 is the one I have been going through, which looks impossible for a new player (and for good reason as it requires a good double jump and gliding). Route #2 is the one that the players took and found a deadend because the last platform is way too high.

Lots of other issues were with unclear instructions as expected. Then there were things that were missed because of poor integration (players not needing them or having no instructions for them). For example critical strikes, "shopping" or combat overall hadn't been forced at any point so they weren't really tested naturally, this might've been up to the preferred playstyle too though.

Conditions

The conditions for playtesting weren't optimal as this was a "demo friday" for our class so almost everybody has something to show which ends up cutting the time for testing a lot. This makes everyone a little antsy and I also didn't have headphones which could be crucial for immersion and of course the stealth element. These are good to know for next time but I still got a lot of great feedback.

Productive session to end the day

I got my classmate Mikk to test it when the dust had settled. He had played platformers and also had the patience/interest/goodwill to go through the whole level. He knew what to expect and had great critiques as well as tips on what could be added or modified. For example I had totally neglected the need for health refills of some kind, which he was looking for. I jotted everything down and ended up with a list 23 items long that I can now go through (not just from this session).

Future

I will be going through the list for fixes and then releasing a build for download, on which you can give feedback if you so desire. After that, development will probably be slowing down as I will have to start focusing on some school projects. I will be creating a presentation for uni about the lessons learned during development (which allows me to use this project towards the degree). Of course later I might pick this back up, maybe with a vision for a different kind of platformer or trying new things with the current mechanics based on the feedback.

Thursday 1.9 | Preparing for Friday's Playtesting

Platformer Prototype

Still putting minor things into place, testing out a build and baking lighting.

Baked lighting

Baking the lighting brought out the shadows so you can actually recognize the shapes of the terrain now.

Day's Work

• Item slot fixed
• Build test
• Reset restart on select&A
• Baked Lighting
• Other minor fixes

Wednesday 31.8 | Gathering Pieces Together for Testing

Platformer Prototype

Bringing in the last messages and continuing to work on little things all around the level. Also trying to make the mountains shapes clearer to see with a different texture.

Putting in the messages from Sunday

Day's Work

• StartCutscene
• Reset restart button only active in debug (OnlyActiveInDebug script)
• Sniper dialog
• Mountain proto material
• SniperDirector: Dialog fetch from dialogmanager
• Bunker Cutscene
• Section 2 pit made bottomless
• Minor Organizing

Tuesday 30.8 | Gold Crates & Preparing for Playtesting

Platformer Prototype

Adding some gold crates and doing small bits here and there preparing for playtesting.

Gold Crates

Throwing in some gold crates. Will be continuing to weed out the bad ones during testing.

Day's Work

• Documents objective
• Objectives UI updated
• Adding coin boxes
• Fixed objectives initialization
• Meeting room table

Monday 29.8 | More Work on the Final Objective

Platformer Prototype

Continuing work on the final objective and some fixes.

Day's Work

• Window material
• Kick fixed (character flew to ceiling if jumped at the same time)
• Continuing enter bunker objective
• Air vent maintenance hall

Weekend 27-28.8 | Chip's Messages, Enemy Variety & Blockout

Platformer Prototype

Creating an enemy variation, figuring out Chip's helpful messages for every objective and modifying the last addition to the blockout.

Great Start

Weekend started off with the realization of having forgotten to push to github on thursday when I was at university. So that meant very limited Unity work, fortunately I had access to the blockout blender file.

Weekend's Work

• Updated Blockout
• "Cooler Guy" enemy meant to be the utilities supervisor (has the keys)
• Shinymachete weapon for him
• Chip's messages

Thursday 25.8 | Functionality for the Bunker

Platformer Prototype

Adding functionality for the last objective and some dynamic platforming elements.

Day's Work

• Interactable Key
• Locked direction switch
• Air vents
• Bunker meeting room

Wednesday 24.8 | Final Section Blockout

Platformer Prototype

Working on adding a final section to the blockout.

Day's Work

• Blockout

Monday 22.8 & Tuesday 23.8 | Satellite Phone to Receive Intel from Chip

Platformer Prototype

Creating a satellite phone to receive intel from Chip and making it possible to scroll the message history. Monday was the first day back in school, meaning I didn't get too many hours in during the mess, so it didn't really deserve it's own post.

I also passed the soft deadline I set myself but that's kind of expected while discovering so many new things. I will try to get the prototype testable as soon as possible. I'm starting to have the crucial elements together and building with these elements hopefully doesn't bring about too many more surprises.

Satellite Phone

Changing the sniper communication UI to something that makes it clear that it is just that. Also keeping a history of the messages received so that they can be scrolled in the pause menu with the left stick.

Work Done

• Monday
  • Organizing scripts
  • Added checkpoint and cutscene for enter bunker objective
• Tuesday
  • Satellite Phone vector art to which Chip messages
  • Scrollable history of dialogs
    • Scrollbar
    • Smoothed movement
    • Gamepad Scrollview