Playtest Club: Feb 10, 2012

Hey hey,

I took our game to playtesting club and got a lot of great feedback. A lot of people mentioned the same things, so here's the jist of it:

Likes:

1. The first thing people usually said was that they like the look. "Nice style!" "Cute!" Etc. That's great, because that's what we'll mostly be graded on.
2. People like the lamps. They found the lamps useful for navigating and it was fun to turn them on.
3. People like that the game gets more difficult as you progress. Pink = super easy, Blue = a little harder, Green = more of a challenge.

Dislikes:

1. Backtracking sucks. It just does.
2. Dead ends are boring (Jenn your instincts in that regard were correct).
3. The game is a little too linear for some people.
4. Could use something else to do.

Bugs:

1. The blue carrot disappears at one specific location.
2. The carrots can fall off.
3. Camera clips/can't look up or down/snaps forward too soon/don't want it to snap forward.
4. Siggy clips into his clothes.

Ideas:

1. Backtracking: Use gates or ramps or other one-way obstacles to bring the player to the gate right after they find the carrot. (Aenok, you had a good idea there)
2. Dead ends: If we include them at all, the player should discover the end quickly, and/or there should be a one-way exit to avoid backtracking.
3. Too linear: At the green bunny gate (the hard one), have more than two path choices immediately visible.
4. Something else to do: Collectibles. These will reward the player for moving through the maze as opposed to punishing them for making wrong guesses. Needs to be something that isn't the lights (the lights are meant for navigation).
5. Navigation: Art assets could help show where the player can go. For example, an archway over a path entrance would add emphasis and help the player notice the path is there.


My plan for addressing issues this week:

1. Fix the carrots falling off and carrots disappearing bugs.
2. Edit the paths to reduce backtracking.
3. Fix Siggy clipping with his clothes.

I just put the build I did for the playtesting club on dropbox (Game Builds/Bonbon Voyage Alpha0.4). If you guys could have a look at it, that would be great.