From NIHWiki
General Reflections
Generally speaking, the playtest went very well. The students for the most part grasped both the underlying mechanic of the game and seemed to enjoy playing the game. Feedback regarding the look and feel of the game was very productive. Below I've outlined some of the major issues we need to examine and possible future avenues the game can take.
Bugs Needing Squishing
| Memory Leak/Star Deletion
| We experienced a crash which is likely due to a memory leak in the game or the way that stars after collection are being deleted. It is possible that both are occurring and we should examine this issue more closely.
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| Pure Water Visuals
| One primary piece of feedback we received was that pure water is not obvious enough to players. We discussed having the "fog" disappear or the background color change as the player moves into the pure water.
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| Possible Bug: Pure Water Less Toxic at Top/Bottom of Box
| It is possible that the pure water boxes have less effect on Osy at the top and bottom of the bounding box. This is not yet a proven bug, only a possible bug.
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| Movable Crystal Sweet Spot
| Because there was only a one particle sweet spot for Osy being big enough to move crystals, some players were frustrated. We should make this window two or three particles wide.
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| Osy Color Changes
| Right now when Osy boosts, if she is red she becomes yellow. She should become orange to indicate that the is out of equilibrium, but also has boost. This will also fix the case where a player has a little amount of boost left, but loses the ability to determine Osy's state.
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Control Changes
| Removal of the +/- from Osy
| The largest control change seemed to focus on trying to allow for mouse only movement of the character. The "+/-" being used to govern Osy's particle state didn't seem to be adequate. Thus, we are moving particle add/subtract to keyboard or controller only. Mouse movement still works as does keyboard movement.
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| Polish Control Screen
| We need to polish up our controls screen, perhaps showing a diagram of the Xbox 360 Controller and of the keyboard to indicate which keys do what.
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Design Changes
| Bubble Vent Introduction
| Unanimously bubble vents need a better introduction in-game. Boosting should likely be introduced in its own level without pure water vents or other gameplay elements.
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| Addition of Checkpoint System
| A major design addition that we need to think through is the addition of a checkpoint system. The most likely candidate seems to be the addition of an object in the game a player can visit which will save their progress in the current level.
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| Pause Button and Screen
| Players wanted the ability to pause the game. This should also bring up a kind of status screen for the players. Perhaps the number of stars they have collected or any other information we would like to display.
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| Lower Priority: Cut Scenes
| Rather than attempting to inform players of all gameplay elements with Osy Thoughts we could also have in-engine scripted cut-scenes that inform players of new gameplay elements and what those things do. This would certainly make it more apparent what something does or how it works.
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Future Possibilities
Players seemed to indicate that they liked the last level the most. In part I think this is because it is a synthesis level. The other levels are designed to force them to indicate competency over a single mechanic. The last level is designed simply to make use of all our available design mechanics. Perhaps simply having more of these levels would be good.
| Addition of Checkpoint System
| A major design addition that we need to think through is the addition of a checkpoint system. The most likely candidate seems to be the addition of an object in the game a player can visit which will save their progress in the current level.
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| Pause Button and Screen
| Players wanted the ability to pause the game. This should also bring up a kind of status screen for the players. Perhaps the number of stars they have collected or any other information we would like to display.
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| Health System Based on Size Oscillation
| Primarily this would be used to discourage players from simply adding and subtracting particles like a rheostat. So the more a player causes Osy to go in and out of extreme states the less resilient she is. This could be combined with some kind of shield or ability to come in contact with death crystals once.
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| Osy Customization
| One suggestion was that players could customize their Osy colors. I would suggest allowing them to select a color and then based on the color wheel we select their danger and boost colors. Perhaps we could have a Facebook/Website badge that they could add with this customized Osy?
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Jared Brain Dump
- Add Osy "shield" / tougher skin when she is at equilibrium
- One hit kill when Osy is red
- Osy can rebound from hits when she is her normal blue
- How many hits? Infinite? 2 or 3?
- Keep track of how the player died and offer hints?
- Example: (Player shrinks and dies in a particle field) "You have to add particles to Osy in order for her to survive."
- Keep the Player from removing all particles?
- Osy can still die with 1 particle, 2 would be the minimum survivable number
B. J.'s Pickups
- The white screen to fade into a new level is the same as when you start over after you die. (This could be OK now that there is a pause once you die)
- Add a two second pause after you die (could display hints here as well, per Jared's assessment above), then start listening for the anykey press to restart the level (update: done)
- Buy a bigger map (someone mentioned this in the discussion post-game trial)
- Delete the boost emitter on death. (update: done)
