In this blog, I'll discuss how my game "Beat Them Robots" went from a Beat 'em Up and Roguelike hybrid game into a multigenre video game in 4 weeks. This time, we'd add a new genre into the game: Shoot 'em Up. Players can now punch or shoot the enemies in the game and can go through multiple randomized stages. 

When adding elements from Shoot 'em Up, a few things need to be considered. Which is the following:

- The Controls, how would the player shoot?

- The Balance, would the "punch" be useless once the player can shoot?

- The Stage, what things we can add to make the players not just stand there and shoot?

Week 8:

For this week, I'd added the shoot mechanics for the players which players can shoot when pressing the button X. Since shooting in this game can be too overpowered, I decided to add in a bullet system which will limit the player's shooting throughout the whole game. With this, I also added a power-up item that the players can obtain and increase their amount of bullets. The only way the players can get the power-up is to defeat the enemies and they will drop the items by chance. I also added a UI to show the player's amount of bullets left so that they will know that they are running out of bullets and they can't shoot anymore. Lastly,  I also added a new obstacle where it can shoot out a bullet that can follow the players, this will make the players move instead of standing on the stage and waiting for the enemies to come. Lastly, I also added an SFX for the shoot so it gives an immersion to the players.

However, there was a bug in the game where when you started the game fresh, your bullet amount would become 1000 which is a problem and gives the player the advantage to only shoot the enemies to win the game.

During A/B testing, I wanted to test out the difference between giving the players starting bullets of 10 (Build A) and without starting bullets (Build B) to see which version would be more engaging for the players.  During the playtest, build A can make the players search of the bullets and test it out by killing the enemies. Which gives them the motivation to play the game by obtaining the power-up. As for build B, players can experience the shooting mechanics as soon as possible. It can be easy for them to go through the stage thus making the game boring. This is also applicable for Build A players because of the Bullet Bugs. Due to this, Build A would be the next build since telling the player that you can shoot in the game and the player has to obtain it can be a reward for the players.

Week 9 and 10: 

Since the Shoot em' Up elements were already fulfilled during Week 8, both Week 9 and 10 were mostly just fixing bugs and fixing features that are based on the players' feedback. 

In Week 9, I wanted the players to at least get into a healing area for once. So I added a feature where when players are in the 3rd area, it will also be the healing area instead of other areas so the players can get some heals and continue to play the game. I also fixed the bullet bugs by making sure the starting bullets will also be 0 so the game will not give the player 1000 starting bullets. 

As for A/B testing, I wanted to test out whether having a guaranteed healing area would improve the player experience or not. In the end, players who play the build that has the healing area have a more comfort zone right after having to go through the healing area when playing the game. Making the game easier instead of making the player rely on the RNG for a healing area which can be difficult for the players since there are many enemies for them to defeat. 

Another thing I noticed during the playtest was that many players did not test out the controls in the tutorial menu. Which can be pointless for the tutorial especially when there is only 2 buttons to engage in this game.

So in Week 10, I added a flashy test me screen for the players so that they'll know that they can test out the controls in the tutorial menu.