Week 5 Playtest

We chose to focus on showing the movement of the character, the UI and the sound design during this playtest.

Overall during this playtest it was clear that we needed to add more gameplay and scenes to our Vertical Slice in order to receive more relevant feedback, although people did like the aesthetics of the game so far.

Week 9 Playtest

1st – notes during playtest:

• Fix spelling in title screen
• Where’s the key?
• Movement, sound, textbox is a good speed
• Key should appear in the background
• There should be more clear feedback that the player has received the key
• Likes the TV UI

2nd – notes during playtest:

• Looks very good
• Likes the TV and UI
• The sound is good and atmospheric, likes that it changes per room
• Likes the text sound, helps to follow narrative
• Good to see the character
• Would be good to see the key in the background as well as in the UI
• Make the items relevant later in the gameplay
• Good flow, negative door feedback

3rd – notes during playtest:

• Likes the sound as text appears
• Likes the sound design
• Likes the UI design
• Make a clear differentiation between the items and the tools
• Would be cool to make the TV interactive
• Likes the scrolling controls in the Corridor
• Would be interesting if the ending animation was like a tape
• Should add an inventory
• Is it meant to be like a TV show?

4th – notes made during playtest:

• Likes scrolling and camera movement for bigger rooms
• Likes the aesthetic
• The pixel art emulates the TV vibe
• The setting is fun

5th – notes made during playtest:

• Likes the sound design
• Intrigued
• Likes the TV UI
• There should be moving parts in the UI to make it look more alive
• Likes the pixel art
• Likes the TV booting up
• Could be a consistent grain effect on footage (toggleable?)
• Dialogue is neat
• Add a shortcut for the inventory
• Need more feedback that the key has been picked up

6th – notes made during playtest:

• Add key animation
• the scrolling in the corridor can be glitchy
• The item colour palette isn’t consistent with the rest of the game (too bright)
• The items are confusing

7th – notes made during playtest:

• Likes the sound design
• potential grammar issues in initial dialogue
• good font
• The outline on some objects is strange as it is the only instance of white
• occasionally an issue switching to corridor
• confused by the camera controls in the corridor
• shouldn’t be able to move the camera while talking
• make sure there is a story loop

8th – notes made during playtest:

• Likes the art and environment
• Likes the TV UI
• Likes the character design
• Issues going upstairs
• Reminds them of Ace Attorney
• Loves the artstyle
• Excited to play it
• Should highlight the clues and interactive areas

9th – notes during playtest:

• DS game vibes
• Good text sound
• What are the items
• Likes the static loading screen
• Confused by camera controls in the Corridor (glitches when player presses buttons too quickly)
• Confused by the Key aquisition
• Likes the aesthetic

10th – notes made during playtest:

• Shouldn’t be able to interact while moving
• Strong presentation (TV)
• Have the cursor react when hovering over interactable things
• Am I Alex?
• Good context
• Interested

11th – notes made during playtest:

• Didn’t click on the painting
• Glitchy scrolling
• UI is nice and suits the game

12th – notes made during playtest:

• Skipped through dialogue
• Tried to use items
• There was a glitch when trying to go upstairs
• Make load game functional
• Interacted with Lobby
• Upstairs not working
• Outline stairs on hover to make it obviously interactable
• The camera controls glitched in the Corridor
• Main controls should be displayed on the screen at all times instead of just in dialougue

13th – notes made during playtest;

• Environment art is good
• Likes the TV UI
• Dialogue sound is satisfying
• Environment sound is good
• Do the items do anything?
• Likes the camera controls in the Corridor
• I feel like Oedipus is foreshadowing
• Very engaging

In conclusion, the most prevalent aspects during this playtest that needing addressing was the confusion around the key that the player picks up in the Corridor, the need for an inventory system and the glitching camera in the Corridor.

Week 11 Playtest

Some of the most prominent recurring issues during this session was that players would occasionally forget controls, like forgetting to use ‘W’ and ‘S’ in the Basement in order to switch perspectives. This could be tackled by adding on screen icons present during gameplay to indicate what the controls were in case the player forgets.

Another issue was a glitch where the player could become soft-locked in the basement if they clicked on the tapes again after playing them on the camera already.

We also noticed that there was maybe too much text in the game, as the game would take an average of around 17 minutes on average, most of which is spent reading. It became clear that there was perhaps too much text as people would tend to struggle when answering the concluding questions regarding who the murderer was, meaning that the text may have been overwhelming and forgettable on occasion.

Some more minor issues include a couple spelling and grammar mistakes that had been missed, like ‘Jade’ being misspelt as ‘Jad’ after completing the basement.