[Week 8] Playtesting Report + Beta Build

Rotational Traverser Playtesting Report

Game Description

Rotational Traverser is a game focused on rotation objects in order to solve puzzles. The game takes place in two stages: a cell stage, and a human stage. The cell stage is strictly a top-down view in which the player plays as a cell and is only able to rotate objects in a 2D plane while avoiding competing cells. The human stage is an upgraded cell stage, wherein the player has evolved from the form of a fungus, into a humanoid fungus monster. In this stage the player is able to solve puzzles in a 3D environment with recognizable objects and interfaces while still only being given rotation as the primary puzzle solving mechanic. The stages are meant to bring a breadth of interactions to the user as well as preparing them for harder levels as they are able to rotate things in more dimensions as they advance in stages.

Ongoing Concerns/Questions 

Our main concerns were whether or not the player would be able to understand the intended solutions for the puzzles and if the mechanics were explained intuitively enough as many of the group members were aware of standard gameplay mechanics. Since we all had awareness of standard gameplay mechanics, we may not be able to think unbiased from these preconceived notions before having playtesters try the game. As well, going forward into each new version, we wondered if the changes we made were enough to sway the playtester’s understanding of the game into the correct mindset or if they became more lost because of the said changes.

The questions were henceforth, whether the player was able to understand how to use each mechanic and if they were able to understand and solve the puzzle without mindlessly playing with the level.

Procedure

The procedure for playtesting was as follows:

1. Depending on the playtester’s situation and when they were free to test the game they would:

• Be given a ready to play build of the current game.

• Allowed to connect on parsec to the host’s computer in order to play the game through them in case of hardware or operating system restrictions.

1. If the playtesting session was done immediately, both the host and the playtester would be in a discord call and the player was asked to play the game in a think-aloud session while the host was writing down any feedback or insights and giving puzzle hints if the player became lost on how to solve a puzzle.
2. After the player finished play testing the game, they were asked to fill out a survey form which included providing feedback on the gameplay mechanics, assets, and sounds, as well as if there were any other confusions that the survey did not address.

Participants

The participants included friends, family, industry professionals, other group’s team members, and misc. online friends.

Results

Cell Tutorial Level:

Version 1:

• The first version of the tutorial level was a sandbox maze. The players were taught the mechanics/controls at the very beginning of the level. They were then set free to explore the maze and find an exit while utilising the various game mechanics.
• In general, playtesters were able to learn the controls, but didn’t develop a good understanding of the mechanics. They were also unable to figure out what their goal was (escaping the maze). Overall this tutorial did not help the player learn the game mechanics or the gameplay loop.
• The players also felt that a lot of information was thrown at them at the start of the level. This made it hard for them to remember every mechanic and how it fit into the gameplay loop.
• Players never fully made a complete understanding of how the festering cell’s mechanics worked and thought it was very unfair when the said mechanic stopped them from playing the level.
• Players were also confused about all the different buttons they had to press initially as they were spread out. (ie. wasd, r, arrow keys).
• Players enjoyed rotating the puzzle mechanics around in the level and felt that the restriction on the amount of rotation did not contribute enough to warrant it existing.
• Another common issue was the player running into “invisible” colliders due to oversized bounding boxes.
• Playtesters did like the look and feel of the level despite being confused about the goal.

Version 2 (Levels 1-5):

• The second version of the tutorial level kept the theme, but was a multipart scene that introduced each mechanic sequentially and allowed the player to play around with each mechanic before moving onto the next one.
• In general, playtesters thought this level did a good job of teaching the them the mechanics / controls
• However about half of our playtesters felt that we should make the tutorial longer so that players have more time to learn each mechanic and experiment.
• Another common criticism was that tutorial text was not always clearly visible, and was not always placed in the optimal locations.
  •  Ex. The tutorial text telling players to run from the enemy blocked the enemy from view and appeared too late for the player to take action.
• In this version of the tutorial, the instruction text is displayed as part of the level instead of in the UI. This means tutorial text readability depended on the viewing angle. This was the main reason that tutorial text was hard to read at times.
• Some playtesters also found that the selection mechanic in to start rotating nearby objects was confusing given there was no sense of direction to the character.

Human Stage Level 1: 

Version 1:

• Players were confused on what they were and weren’t able to rotate in the scene.
• The players were often able to spam the rotation of every object in the scene until they accidentally solved the puzzle.
• Due to there not being a linear path the player has to take, the tutorial hints were usually missed by the majority of playtesters leading them to have no idea on how to solve the final puzzle.
  • Even when the player did find the tutorial hints, they sometimes missed it or did not realize its relevance to the puzzle and were left confused on how to solve, or how they did solve the puzzle.
• Most players thought the door open button was actually a light sensor, so they would try to shine the laser on it and wonder why the puzzle was not solved.

Version 2:

• In this version, we attempted to make the puzzle more obvious/intuitive to the player.
• The additional colours to the mirrors did see an increased amount of players rotating them first.
  • This actually ended up being an hindrance though as they thought the mirrors were the only rotatable thing in the puzzle and that they could only rotate the top part of the mirror which could only rotate vertically.
  • This also caused almost all of the playtesters to miss the tutorial hints, despite including more and in more locations as it required rotating the laser on the roof which was one of the last things they realized was rotatable.
• The playtesters really enjoyed messing around with the non-puzzle rotatables like cabinets and wall pictures.
• Players were having trouble knowing how their rotations affected the laser, they kept having to rotate, look down, and continue this cycle until they get their desired results.

Changes

Cell Tutorial Level:

• Changes after Version 1:
  • Major mechanical changes at this stage included:
    • Removing the rotation limit on the player, they are now able to rotate objects as much as they like without limitation
    • Changing the reset rotation button from R, to only happen when they walk over a specific object known as a “reset pad” throughout the level. This is the only way to affect objects in a distance from the player
    • To help improve the player’s understanding of the festering mechanic, we attached joints from the festering cell and the rotatable object that would trigger the festering in said cell
  • Changed the level to introduce the mechanics one by one in this order:
    • Movement
    • Rotating Objects
    • Moving Obstacles using Rotation
    • Rotation Reset via Reset Pads
    • Festering Cells
  • We decided on this design because it prevented the player from being overwhelmed at the start of the game. We also hoped it allowed the player to become comfortable with each mechanic before moving onto the next.
  • We removed the larger rotatable objects that caused bounding box issues in the first version. We instead kept the rotatable objects smaller with a more consistent appearance.
  • We introduced the game with a more linear puzzle solving based gameplay loop. However we also included sections such as a short maze which conveyed that exploration will also be a part of future levels.

• Changes after Version 2 (Levels 1-5):
  • Based on the playtester feedback, we have decided to extend each section of the tutorial in order to give the player more time to learn each mechanic. This is because many playtesters felt that they did not have enough time to grasp one mechanic before being introduced to another.
  • The playtesters were satisfied with the content of the tutorial text. Therefore we are keeping the tutorial instructions the same in the extended level as well.
  • Furthermore, in our survey many playtesters reported that the level may benefit from more color/decoration as well as the colour styles between the two stages being very jarring. 
    • To address this, we have decided to add more color/decorations in the redesigned tutorial level and other future cell stage levels.
    • This includes creating a more realistic design for the cell stage such that it matches more to the human stage.

Human Stage Level 1:

• Changes after Version 1:
  • We found that most of the playtesters completely missed the tutorial hints, either by not encountering their animation, or by not thinking it was important.
    • To counter this, we included them in more locations and in a higher frequency as well as more objects that react to them.
  • Players were also left wondering what they were supposed to do when they initially encountered the human stage since it was more free-range. 
    • To help guide players, we tested with adding lighting effects to highlight some of the puzzle mechanics (ie. the mirrors in the level) to see how it would affect the player engagement and understanding of the puzzle.
    • We also added additional hints on the wall pictures to say that the vials were explosive in case the player got stuck.

• Changes after Version 2 (Levels 1-2):
  • Due to user feedback, we are mostly scrapping down the current level, simplifying it, and pushing it into the far future of the game as it is nowhere intuitive enough to be a first level for the player.
  • Instead we are following the cell stage’s approach of being very simple.
    • In the first level the player is only able to rotate the laser on the roof to finish the puzzle.
    • In the second level the player is only able to rotate the mirrors vertically to divert a laser around a wall to a light sensor
  • Almost every playtester that played our game thought the button to open the door was actually a light sensor since that is what made the most sense for them.
    • In response, we decided to give in to the player’s intuition and replace the button to open the door with a light sensor.
  • Around 30% of players didn’t realize that single objects had multiple ways of rotating on them depending on where you selected. 
    • We removed one axis of movement from these objects such as the mirror in response. This may come back in later levels, but only if we have time to make a redesigned model.
  • Since players found rotating random objects in the level very enjoyable, we decided to include optional objects while differentiating and giving a hint to the main objective. These are just random interactions the player can have in the current level in case they need a break from the puzzles to just have fun rotating things.
  • Due to a lot of players encountering the repetitive cycle of rotating something, seeing where the laser is pointing, rinse and repeat. 
    • To mitigate this, we added a camera view of the objects that can deflect on the bottom right corner so you can see where you are aiming the laser. 

User Interface:

• Tutorial Text
  • Playtesters mentioned that the tutorial text was difficult to read at times. They also noted that tutorial text was not placed properly during some encounters in the game (Ex. enemy in tutorial level.).
  • To improve the readability of the tutorial instructions we did the following:
    • Place the text on the UI instead of as part of the level.
    • Place all instructions consistently in the top right of the screen.
  • We also ensured that tutorial text is visible both before and during encounters.
    • Ex. The tutorial text telling the player to run from the enemy is displayed before the enemy begins to chase the player. This gives the player enough time to react and take action.

• Pause Menu
  • We linked the checkpoint button to respawn the player at the previous checkpoint. This feature was missing in the playtesting build.