Love the music!
Googlywaa
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A member registered May 29, 2020
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Hey Team Medical Mayhem!
Great build coming together, nice to play different iterations of previous levels so that's good to see the main levels starting to take shape and hold their own. Have we found the fun with this? I think there's moments where its not a million miles off target and generally its not a bad little experience to be had so well done with this.
I think one of the primary things that's noticeable about this build is the work submitted by different level designer has def formed a product feel and cohesion. What is noticeable through playing is the harder iterations of the levels still feel 'quite hard' in comparison.
What I do like is the power ups. In a well balanced game you would introduce those individually in a level prior to mixing them up in one scene. So with this in mind I would like to play those levels.
I really want the green powerup to really utilize the metrics of space whilst the blue needs to really push that 'speedy' feel. I'm seeing moments of experience in other scenes that suggest you get the ability but I'm not playing enough content to really demonstrate the best setup throughout an entire level.
With the powerups themselves, I think there's an added components that would bring more value (audio/VFX) that could push the player feel more as right now the juice could be a lot more flavorsome.
Turrets!!
Ok, theres some good turrets in here and I like the way they work with some of the designed flow. It does it somewhat overwhelming in the harder levels.
Breakable floors! I like them, would like to see them appear more often as they can give an extra level of depth to the overall experience.
The door problem.
Ok, I like the doors and I love the replay options to build a faster route through progress on collecting the elements in the scene. Theres still a slight disconnect between knowing how many I have and which doors I can unlock which means the intermediate feedback isn't inherently connecting. Is there a way of 'turning the door on' visually in combination of having the right amount of collectibles currently picked up? That might help with maybe (color/lighting/VFX/audio) What you want to do is keep the players focus on the path and then feedback in other ways to communicate the progression.
I would love to be able to play a level that shrinks in space. So the player starts on the outside and then you have centric sections of space leading to a door in the middle of the room. Use the gated door system. Use Blue Pill on outside and maybe green pill in the middle?
Anyway, is there enough content? Is this the best levels you can build? Do you want to build more levels? Can you build more levels?
Right now, the game has a feel and has a core gameplay experience that really just needs now more ideas. I would not focus on harder difficulty if I was you right now. Get some more 'fun' setups to pad out the content a little more, if possible!
Anything else?
Yeah, on getting hitting sometimes the camera glitches and is somewhat of a gamebreaker in breaking my immersion.
Yes, I can still band my head on things but if Im honest with you its no where near as bad as it has been.
Frnt end is pretty basic, please give the build a 'lick of paint' and smarten up the user flow.
Few more audio updates? Feels quite quiet in places.
Exiting a level isnt very exciting.
Loading screens between levels would be nice to help frame it all together.
Do you have a final screen to thank the player for playing the demo? Might be a nice slide to add.
Hey Team ROBO PILL!
Thanks for a really solid playing build, had alot of fun with this overall so that a bonus! Yes, there's a few quality of life issues but that's to be expected!
From a Level Design perspective there's a clear adherence to the projects metrics and there's a consistency feel throughout that is commendable as that part of the hardest parts of the process, getting that consistency between levels. I can feel and see and play this where I can pick it up and run with it!. So good job here!
Block-out language is clear and accessible, I dont think I had any issues quickly reading the scene as to what I need to do.
You've managed to find a decent balance for the 3C's and effort has gone into examples demonstrated that connects to the rhythm aspect to a platformers DNA. It wants me to play more crazy levels!! Its feeling like its scratching the surface for a more exhilarating ride!
What I like going on here from a design POV is the way you use traversal wall kicks to connect the main concept of the puzzle, which I think is a smart move. This leads me into think how can you find more challenging ways of actually exiting a scene but threading back into the mix a wall kick setup to the end of a level.
Would love to see one of those horizontal green elevators forcing the player over a large pit of spikes and using the jetpack they just manage to hit the bottom of a wall kick, that with enough balanced energy, have enough to double kick towards the exit.
Default game camera has moments of 'that's the right feel!' in certain levels and I think it would be smart to focus on the cameras to find a tighter alignment. You aren't that far off, maybe two people sit down and go over the main setup and then copy the metrics over.
Ok, the gripes with the build!
Remove all editor functions being rendered to screen.
Remove the debug button to skip the start countdown as this countdown MUST be reset on every death. You have a timer that's critical to the players performance so you must reset this system in context to the player 'restarting a level after death'.
Crumbling Platforms (VFX) aren't clearing up on player respawning. Only logic I could see but double check all logic and make sure EVERYTHING resets.
PLEASE have an audio pass for next build! You can address the Menu Screen since there's alot of effort gone into the feel. Also find a more juicier feel to the main Jetpack functionality as that will really help, also find something for the player death.
No Music? So quiet,...
Maybe investigate the UI - see if there's any quality of life issues you might be able to
Final thoughts,
Find an order and redistribute the levels into a narrative that supports the projects vision. If you can try and produce a level that really plays with the green horizontal jetpack jumps as a good succession of those in a well scripted sequence would def something that I would love to see demonstrated.
Thanks for the build!
Ok, alot of my notes essentially paraphrase Alan.
1st impressions is a slightly fragmented product that whilst metrics are feeling better, the pace and flow seems slightly hit & miss.
There's so many 'quality of life' fixes that trying to look past those is really hard to not do. There's inherent issues in all levels that seem to be problematic to those levels (scrutinizes Tamar's snow volume logic,...).
Theres a blockout language coming through and each level has its merits. I do particularly like that nice green material used in Nikola's level and I would like that material reused in other levels for consistency please.
As far as scale is concerned, yes, its starting to frame the experience. Whats impacting the scale though is the camera work and its this investigation or implementation thats really having a massive impact throughout. So a camera pass/balance would be ideal!
Checkpoints & speed bumping the players progress needed.
Balancing the health with all of the user feedback.
With the Level Design itself, some of the difficulty spikes in some levels (Looks over glasses at Davvy) need a bit of TLC.
Watch 'branching paths' throughout. Right now the signposting and general setup has quite found the right balance. Hoeki's level, whilst really well planned out, suffers with branching paths and some dubious checkpoint placement.
Guys,... "LESS IS MORE". Trim the fat where needed or work the flow to be more engaging and intuitive rather than a conscious decision.
So yeah, we need to see the next build a series of house keeping and bug fixes.
Keep at it, there's a really nice little game under all of this.
Hey Team GOL!
Improvements every build to see and play so thats rather fun, go to see a focus and a direction coming through.
Please make sure that no Unreal script is visible in the final build you release, that's dev information and not really warranted for a final release candidate.
Now then, where was I? Ok, Im still not connecting with this game. But thats ok, I can get pass this but Im just not finding the controls for traversal intuitive and every time I sit down with this game I feel I have a hard learning curve trying to work out how Im supposed to play it.
Squirrelled away in a menu system than can give anyone a heart murmur for making a decision on what to press next, there's a rather interesting level developed by Katelin. Its the one with just the assault course of learning the core behavior for traversal. That's wonderful!!! That needs to be more accessible and really given to the player to mess with but trying to find the bloody thing is a nightmare.
What makes this level so good is that I spent more time in here learning the core of the game, the DNA of how its intended on working without over complicating the situation. Really decent example here of what is actually fun with the core experience. Now yes, I still have issues with the audio on the main character but other than that in this projects current form its still not ready for the public to play with.
Now, there was a harder version of the level. This is not something that should be hidden away. Please dont underserve this work as it really complimented the passive iteration.
Anyway, both versions of the same concept really gave me a more of a feel of how this game works so I want the games landing pages to direct the user to this experience easier rather than it being hidden. Theres something in that work that I think presented a rather nice direction for you guys to investigate and thats the ying & yang of a direction thats worth exploring.
There is still an area of development that I think would bring this prototype up a notch or two is defining a more enduring aesthetic to the block-out assets used. Its somewhat a little rough around the edges right now and I think spending some time with the content can help frame the gameplay so it all starts to hang together a little tighter.
Oh! please storyboard the player moves, I think I would like to see some good sketches demonstrating the basic moves. Could add them into this build as I think it would compliment the controls page rather well.
So yeah, final thoughts, good work here, start to pullout the key selling points with the gameplay, promote that experience of Katelin's and investigate that as a focus because this project needs its 3C's sold if Im to find the fun in this game by playing it.
Keep up the good work.
Would be within the projects best interest to give this landing page a lick of paint. Really not feeling the pull to DL this game based on this page.
Love the menu system carousel, interested in seeing further iterations of this moving forward.
You have a rather nice aesthetic within the design site, quite surprised to not see the same attention to detail in the actual build. There's a real lack of character that is sorely missed to help build a stronger appeal.
Be mindful of surface types that are designed to impact the players progression. Due to the nature of constructing the scene from the ground up the elements added to the scene that are a form of hazard need to be aligned more tightly to a platform. Currently the player can circumnavigate the threat and recharge the jetpack by mantling on edges of platforms.
Fix platform mantling, right now the capsule collision presents readability issues that feels more like the 3C's model abuses 'pixel perfect jumping' throughout.
Camera!!! Please figure out what this project needs. I've played a few levels to find that the camera isnt not helping reveal the setup. Be very mindful of that and how fast the player flies versus how much they can see. As a player I failed to complete setups due to bad placement. You need to help the player more. Sebastian's level had the smartest camera for what he's investigating.
Consistency!! At this early stage its clear that metrics need to be shared, best practices of setup need to be explored.
2nd jump to jetpack of a wall kick. This, for what ever reason, is not intuitive or completing every time I've tried. Make sure the player is well verse with the mechanic prior to sticking something under them to kill them, please.
GYM exploration. Please use this to experiment with more gameplay scenarios. Maybe lets not get too fixated on 'time taken to complete'. Lets start to investigate what's the core building blocks of what this game is all about.
Final thoughts, yeah, alot more investigations on what makes RoboPill 'pop'. Right now Im seeing process but very rarely excited about the challenge. There's more scope to make full use of that jetpack which as a designer feels woefully under serve on this project. At this stage in development you need to really spark a bit more investment into working out what is fun about this game and build around that,
Thanks for the build,
1st impressions leads me to believe that this landing page needs a bit more professional attention to bring it up to the standard of what's to be expected. The same could be done in the build. Its little things like this which with a bit more care and attention and get you noticed a little more because underneath all of this there's the potential to curate content that will be more memorable.
Ok, I need to talk about this 1st, that green power up, that was FUN! No idea what it actually did but it felt good! So, this is interesting because now you have a dynamic that the entire level needs to be built around and as level designers you need to tap into deeper investigations to see what cool spaces facilitate that movement and momentum.
Secondly, this green power up felt like I should be invulnerable to the same colored projectiles, noticed there's different ones in the scene but there felt like a need to fly through the bad stuff when I was green. So can you look into getting some dependency for the player to utilize the skill and power to expand on the depth of what the feature could possibly do?
The choice of collectables, they need to move. They feel so static that I think there's more challenge to be had that would give you an interesting set of parameters that a Level Designer could have alot of fun with where they can be positioned to really tempt the players movements. Give items basic movement paths so that the timing of where they move accentuates the combined decision a player makes at attempting to grab them.
Whilst I'm enjoying the turrets I'm not finding a good balance between setups and the space the level designers are choosing to use. Content should have room to breathe whilst setting rules and guides for best practices must be investigated to ultimately present a more researched archetype that's ideally used throughout.
Final thoughts, there's a good game feel here, with the right direction I think with a few smart moves and some further investigation into 'best practices for building a level' there could be an interesting game here. But you need to bring that love, its blood, sweat and tears to make half decent gameplay so lets see what focus and direction the team takes moving forward.
Thanks for the build!
Ok, there's alot to like here with some idea generation of the 'sort of thing' you could do as this character thats had some crazy features that provide an interesting, if a little fiddley, carry mechanic that's been implemented.
Theres a choice made to work with physics based objects, this brings an element of challenge and skill to master the level designers ideas. Thats a real great place to be as a level designer because your job is to find how to tighten up the core experience to demonstrate the best, or should I say fun, things you can do with these toys.
Now, theres some really interesting elements and puzzles being demonstrated but as with most things its to do with the way we 'stage the scene' to demonstrate and facilitate the players actions. Right now that aspect is somewhat unbalanced and the metrics really need to enforce the parameters you are establishing for the player to follow.
And those physics objects? You the designer need to tighten up the behaviour throughout. As an experience I spent more down time trying to fix the mess I'd created, quite infuriating that can lead the player to disengage from the overall flow.
Pick-ups serve no real service to the players needs. Maybe its the way the actual collection is served (lack of character/animation/feel) or maybe it actually fills up the fridge somehow? I dont know, as a player Im disconnected to these variable's and their setup questions the design behind them. Please develop the collectibles a little more.
What happens as a goal? Maybe think about at least celebrating the players journey and final destination, things should have a bit more spike to at least sync the levels together or present something to celebrate.
So final notes, Im not quite sure what this game is other than you really need to make the feedback on the cool stuff that you are already doing. Tighten it up and series invest a bit more focus on metrics to lock down the framing of the focused experience.
Hey guys,
Thanks for the latest build.
Before we get things started there's def a sustainable 3C's model here to be balanced. To nod towards Evestay's notes that the current form functions to very tight parameters so when demonstrated with the current iteration of GYM scenarios there feels to be very high difficulty curve.
The current examples demonstrated assumes the player is comfortable with the intended behaviour which is not true. As a player, its hard to find a flow into the mindset of the level designers direction so I would suggest that you figure out how you might want to distribute the core experience through a series of progressively challenging scenes..
Whilst I can see what I need to do the 3C's at the moment tend to impact the players reach and then combine that in unison with learning the basics its somewhat of a daunting task to complete. Is it the Level Design thats at fault? Yes, to a degree, but its all about investigating a safe space to have fun with the core of the concept.
Might be worth investigating a few GYM examples of what we would class as an 'adventure playground' to bounce about in. I think there's evidence on show to develop a good flow between the 3C's and the space you are planning. Please omit anything from this level that might hurt the player. I don't want to die from this test space.
Lets see examples of what you guys think as a team that might present a series of crafted setups that challenges the base 3C's model and then that way maybe we can identify what's fun about it.
Hey, thanks for the update.
Ok, so 1st build of the block and theres a need to tighten up on the direction as the current content can be confusing to follow.
The new GYM levels are great to see but they are encroaching fully finished levels rather than servicing the needs of the metrics or what the player can be doing within the space.
Some of the new levels presented feel over developed right now, the use of screen space here is a big issue for me as there isnt a balance of space, work/ideas are shoehorned in right now and that clutters the screen.
Still concerns about the upper horizontal space, camera impacts gameplay so a more thought needs to go into the distribution of ingredients might get impacted by the way the scale works in relation to the camera and player position.
You might want to investigate the time used to setup the golden path, right now there feels like far too many steps and an element of frustration learning the puzzle path.Find the right balance here.
Some good investigation overall coming through in the GYM's.
What is noticeable is that there's alot to balance within this project and the proffessional in me suggests fixing or tightening up what you have because the core experience is missing the mark.
Alot of work here, can there can be a game to have fun with but right now it might be wise to tighten up the ship.
Odd issues with respawn logic.
Would also suggest spending time with the cameras as there's alot of inconsistencies on how you are wanting to work with those.
The jump+dash combination feels somewhat hampered by the cooldown and when demonstrated in the GYM's theres a feeling that the cooldown is impacting the rythm that I think you might be after. If thats not the case then the metrics and space used for the GYM scenario's might be built to the wrong scale.
Landing page needs a little love – add ambient.
Build info page was a nice addition.
Overall, hard to quickly assess what the final 3C’s model will be as I think based on play they ‘feel’ differently?
I had to learn that I had to ‘hold down’ the dash to get it to work, wasn’t signposted very well or was it intuitive. I was sat here thinking how this game might play with 2 cooldowns – one for each dash (left/right). Not quite sure what value it brings with just the one.
Both ‘styles’ of main PC in the way look in both Davvy’s Hokei’s levels offer a very different impression and both would serve the needs of the player. Showed my 5 year-old daughter and she liked them both,…
Davvy’s character needs to blink,…
Both characters would look rather nice if the headpiece (flower) spun around on descent.
Davvy’s Level
18m large gap jump I really can’t do… not quite sure why,.. I think it’s a combination of how the jump function actually feedbacks to the player when I learn to work out what that pixel perfect jump is to launch the player.
I really like the VFX air current – need to work on scale on the emitter (looks squashed) but there's A LOT this game can have building the level design around this one feature alone. I would like to see more ideas with this in combination of Hokei’s hazards.
Respawn logic – Placement in some of the spike setups aren't correctly added.
On player death you aren't locking the controller commands, I can spam buttons and move straight away. Would advise holding the player on the respawn otherwise it feels to loose and in more precarious setups the player will die down to input.
Thought about having the dash on cooldown on respawn?
Hokei
Really interesting GYM’s – maybe the execution on some examples are a tad too hard to complete or I can abuse the moving platform hazards to vault into locations where I shouldn’t be 😉
Respawn logic can be skipped. I would look at making sure that the volume of the gate is slightly higher so there's more chance of the player passing through the gate when in midair.
Would like to see the VFX air current LD ingredient to feature in ALL Gym’s that have hazards.
Timing and player feedback, esp taking health away and giving health back need to be balancing a little to facilitate the players needs.
Restoring health needs to be a better curve on replenish, currently it dosent flow over time.
Tudor
On player death the camera zooms in and stays locked until I quit the level.
Understandable, you joined the project late but I found the distribution of setups not separated enough as the respawn logic isnt helping test anything.
Final direction for the team.
Moving forward, you have a very organic feeling main player character. From a level design POV there's not much going on in the GYM’s to demonstrate ‘slopes’. Would HIGHLY recommend investigating a set of rules to build with.
Overall, metrics throughout the examples presented needs to be ‘tightened up’. There's a nod towards supporting the features whilst the frame work of the layout misses a lot of context that’s needed from a metric focused GYM.
The overall 3C’s feels a little ‘floaty’ which causes many issues trying to traverse in the examples setup to demo causing the player to fight with the precision speed and response to jump to the next setup. This forms a ‘skiddy’ feel to the players position whilst adapting to the agency of the timer and level setup. You need to addressed this aspect to the navigation and basic input to the responses. More balancing required.
The biggest issue with the vertical slice is the lack of function to the ‘Timed’ events. I think from observation it’s the collectibles. Whilst the base design and concept has a core loop to run with the logic is not locked down. Might be the menu systems or the general blueprint but would advise the project to fix this as it really impacts the overall experience.
There's a small level select that used the stomp feature – that was great!
The 3 door level select, whilst enjoyed, the above statement is needed more over the current selection established. It connects the player to the main USP.
The stomp mechanic was great to play with (3C’s – esp camera liked!), in fact there's more potential and investigation to be had with this feature which in an ideal world should be serviced in the GYM. The current GYM for this feature is trying to display setups but there's a big design question still unanswered and that’s to do with the breakable volumes.
For this feature to ‘really’ work there needs to be more reward on the feedback of actually smashing an object. I would love to see large cubic mass that the player demolishes over something that looks like a flimsy plank. Look into a way of getting those boxes to really explode on contact.
Investigate the material types more, I could quite happily learn the levels rules of play where an object might take a few stomps to bust open. Would definitely consider this as a set of parameters to work with as it will give you a few extra building blocks for the level design puzzle designs.
There's an odd audio placeholder that I think is triggered if I spam the function for stomp?, its not needed (or change the sound please!)
There's a GYM with environmental hazards. Turrets and I think ‘search lights’? Anyway, there looks to be an underdeveloped features here, which is a shame as these could bring value to the overal project but in their current iteration lack functionality to be embedded into the final project.
Things to clean up!
Control scheme – pick one and stick with it! I played the game with a controller and there was no player facing design to onboard the player, please fix.
Test and triple test the menu flow please. There's a bug through the navigation that’s locking up the build that requires a force quit to exit out.
One last thing, whilst there's an experience forming here in this build, which is appreciated, there's clearly a lot more important focus on tightening up the core 3C’s and developing that stomp some more.
As for the ‘bonus level’ level that could be a potential direction for the project but there's clearly more work to be done on gameplay until we can build upon this next block.