Week 4: Playtest Feedback and Meeting Notes

Feedback -> What to alter/add

• Tutorial
  • attack directionality should be clearer
    • hide mouse cursor
    • change how attacking works
• Big door
  • needs a slower reveal, either dialogue box or animation.
• Door animation
  • improves clarity for player direction and how to progress in the game
  • players can’t tell when they’re also being locked in a room
• Death animation and gameplay loop
• Health UI
  • players can’t tell when they’re taking damage and how low health they have. Means they might take more damage than intended and play a certain way.
• Damage indicators for enemies
  • being able to track enemy damage can let players grasp the strength of other enemies and they can change how they play according to that.
• Level obstacles blend in with the background and players can’t track what is killing them
• Enemy projectiles look wrong or ‘off’
• Accessablity controls
  • controller use
  • key rebinds
• Hub tree hitbox is oversized
  • causing confusion for players
• Hub door design should be clearer
• Dash needs changes
  • either forces directional movement
  • could be able to change direction in dash
    • more of a roll
• Basic enemies do too much damage
• Sync up attack with animation
  • maybe lock attack movement
• Spikes have no collision
  • also blends into background
• Add in items that will restore health
• Sound
• No clear goal
• Menu UI resolution needs to be fixed

Bugs

• Players are sometimes able to clip through closed doors without having to clear the room
• Can view surrounding rooms when walking into the corner of the current room
• Enemies can be cornered
  • makes levels too easy
• Can walk back into locked room.

Positives

• Enemies stand out well on the background and are visusally striking
• Attack loop is satisfying and feels good to use
• Room transistion is smooth
  • players are getting stuck mid transition, might need to force the player through the doorway a certain amount
• protag animations are satisfying
  • might be a bit too big
• hub design is good
• character design is good

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kjpT0DS_shDirHUYpBjZcx1vDOKQX78pulFGiZXNxTo/edit

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Statuses on Previous Week’s Tasks

• Ejay -> Added Room Manager
  • Fixed dash✅
    • Dash no longer collides with new movement scripts✅
    • Dash makes player immune to damage✅
  • Added Start Menu
    • Working start button✅
    • Working exit button❌
  • Player is now able to damage enemies✅
  • Player can now take damage from enemies✅
  • Helped with player animations✅
  • Began Wrought enemy prototype✅
• Riya -> Enemy whisper animations🔄️
• Josh -> Level layouts(paused) 🔄️
  • Dialouge and Narrative direction
• Ayse -> Attacking, health mechanics.
  • Fixing sprite animations
• Xane -> Animated background tiles and hub

Most of the tasks from the previous week have been completed such as:

• Enemy behaviours (Attacking and Movement and Health) for: Whispers✅ and Wroughts❌
• Protagonist animations, Enemy animations ✅
• Level layouts(cont)✅
• Menu UI (cont)✅, Player (Attacking and Health)✅
• Tree of Sorrow animation & Design redrafts (cont)✅

However there are still some finishing touches that must be made on last weeks tasks:

• Health UI
• Wroughts attacks and health

Most of the tasks for before the Thursday playtest were completed, however, there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in terms of combat and UI. Dungeon design and feel is very good, but the actual gameplay is still very rough.

Important Discussions

After the Thursday playtest we mostly discussed how we can further improve the game playability by implementing and changing the things listed below:

• We need to add a dely on enemies attacking the player, they currently go into combat immediatly which causes some confusion and panic for the player.
• Damage values need to be adjusted
• Need to make a tutorial room.
• Pause button and death replay loop.
• Health UI and damage indicators.
• Spikes need to be redesigned to be clearer on the background.
• Enemy attacks need to fit in with the theme more.
• Tree hitbox needs to be fixed
• Dash needs forced input

Aims to Complete In Week 5

• Ejay -> Enemy behaviour. Pause and death replay loop. Adjust damage values. Dash forced input.
• Riya -> Enemy bullet sprite. Start on Wrought animations. Canvas re-size.
• Josh ->Entry cutsce dialogue. Item drop dialogue.
• Ayse -> Health UI. Pause Menu.
• Xane -> Tree hitbox. Spike designs. Tile layers.

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Written by Joshua Bates. Reviewed/Formatted by Aysa Atalay