Posted October 14, 2023 by JonoG
Concept devlog comparison:
With the game now in its final state, comparisons can now be drawn to the original concept outlined in the concept devlog. A number of components have been accurately implemented from the initial concept. Firstly, the PlayStation controller optimization has been implemented, with bullets reflecting each button being pressed. The designs of the player, enemies, bullets, and level designs all exist roughly as I expected them to and fit the overall concept that was initially created.
One area of the game that hasn’t been implemented that I planned to was the directional shooting. Initially, I planned for the player to have the capacity to shoot in eight directions, governed by some sort of control for each direction. With the three different projectiles needing to be shot, and the desire to have each bullet be fired simply by pressing a single button, it made it difficult to implement on mouse and keyboard. This would have been possible to implement on controller, given the other joystick, but difficult to make sense of on keyboard, given that if I used the mouse, the left click and right click could be used to shoot, but then the third shot would have had to be something else, making it feel strange in my opinion. As a result of this reasoning, I did not attempt to add it to the game.
In the concept devlog, I referenced Super Meat Boy as a general reflection of what the movement in the game would look like. The final game is quite different to this, with movement being far slower and with less of a focus on momentum, but I feel that the movement controls in this game are well suited the game, as the shooting component of the game would have had less prominence in the game if the player moved at such a rate.
Feedback summary:
Upon completion of the testing session, a number of observations were made by players regarding the state of the game. General feedback questions were asked around the difficulty of the platforming and shooting elements of this game. The average difficulty rating of the platforming in this game was 6/10, which seems reasonable to me, given that some players felt it was easy, others thought it was reasonably hard. The average difficulty rating of the shooting components was 5.2/10, which, suggests a similar rating as the platforming.
A number of positive pieces of feedback were recorded by users. The main strength testers saw in the game was the movement of the character, with tester mentioning that the movement was “very fluid and smooth” and that the “double jump and dash are fun to use”. Other positive feedback suggested that the style, aminations and music choice fit the genre and made the game enjoyable.
Several observations were made during the game for potential changes that would improve the game in some way. One of the overarching points of feedback from the testing session was that the colour coded enemies were not particularly intuitive and required a few attempts to understand. As a result of this, I have created an instructional element to the second level when the player first discovers an enemy, altering them to the different types of weapons.
Players also thought that the enemies had slightly too much health, making it too difficult to get past them. Enemies started with 5 health, which was reduced by one each time they are hit with the correct bullet type. Upon this feedback, I have reduced the enemy starting health to 3.
Another piece of feedback for this game was that the camera was too close to the player and needed to be slightly zoomed out. This change has now been implemented in the game, giving the player a greater understanding of their surroundings.
Another piece of feedback resulting form the testing session was that the game would benefit from a keyboard button that restarts the level, so that players don’t have to use a mouse when playing the game. I have implemented this feature, so that players can hit ‘r’ on the keyboard, or the ‘options’ button on the controller. Additionally, player noticed that music did not correctly stop when returning to the title screen. This has now been fixed. One player also noticed that the square and circle bullet inputs were reversed on level 2. This has now been fixed so that these bullets correctly correspond to the buttons being pressed.
From my own observations of the testing session, I noticed that a number of players failed to notice the pit falls in different levels. There are a couple of reasons for this issue. Firstly, the camera does not properly display below the player, making it difficult to gauge whether or not a drop is dangerous. Secondly, there is no indication of whether a gap is a pit jump or a fall to another platform area. As previously mentioned, I have zoomed out the camera, providing the player with a greater understanding of their surroundings. I have also added some decoration items such as danger signs to properly display the pit jumps in the game.
Assets:
Script assets:
[1] ExceptRea (2023). Laboratory Tileset Revamped LITE. Available at: https://exceptrea.itch.io/laboratory-tileset-revamped-lite
[2] Pi (2022). Platformer Template. Available at: https://pifn.itch.io/platformer-templates
[3] Unleashed Lands (2020). Lifebar Pixelart sprites 16x16. Available at: https://unreached-lands.itch.io/lifebar-pixelart-sprites-16x16
[4] Fieger, Vic. Karmatic Arcade. Available at: https://www.1001freefonts.com/karmatic-arcade.font
[5] Alperomeresin, (2023). The Final Boss Battle. Available at: https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-the-final-boss-battle-158700/