This Monday, I was tasked with presenting my project to the class using some slides based off of my one-page GDD, introducing my core concept and game pillars. I still did not have any concept art to include but I was quite confident with the core concept and the progression of my game. As part of it I got a great deal of constructive feedback to go over and consider.
Overall I had a lot of positive feedback about the concept and core gameplay, and the emphasis on open ended physics-based gameplay, experimentation and playfulness. The simple narrative premise supporting this was also liked, and this is something I want to lean into as I think the game shouldn’t be broken up with a lot of “lore dump” scenes and rather focus on quirky character moments and story beats that emphasise the game’s focus on fun and creativity, a lot like the cutscenes in LittleBigPlanet.
One piece of feedback was questioning whether the deities that grant the player abilities have physical forms, or whether they just spoke to the player via text. I think this may be a result of having no concept art of the characters yet, as they indeed have physical forms, so this is a vital next step I need to prioritise for this week.
I was also asked what my target audience was as this was something I did not fully clarify in my presentation. As stated in my one page GDD, I want to aim for a very large age range as the controls are intended to be as intuitive as possible. However, this piece of feedback recommended simple controls like point-and-click or a mobile platform, and maybe this is a result of not making my intended platform and control scheme clear as the core gameplay loop of moving around a 3D level precisely while using abilities would not lend itself to either of these control schemes at all.
Multiplayer was suggested as I mentioned the game will have some online functionality in the form of a leaderboard, but this may be out of scope for the game as networked physics in a complex game such as this would be difficult. A local split-screen alternate gamemode would be a fun possibility, however.
I was also questioned on the importance of returning to earlier levels to find more collectibles. This was something I was admittedly also vague on, and as a result I adjusted the description of the gameplay loop in my GDD to clarify that level score is increased by finding certain collectibles in harder-to-reach areas of the level (similar to Stars in Super Mario 64 or Odyssey), and further levels and scenes may only be unlocked by having a certain score in previous levels. I am considering having all collectibles contribute to one large score pool for the entire game as that lets the player track their progression easily and feel rewarded for hitting certain milestones and unlocks.
Another piece of feedback also questioned the number of abilities and this is something I definitely need to iron out for the gameplay section of my GDD. I was also recommended to look at the game RoboQuest as an example of including player upgrades in the metagame, and this is something I may have a look into.
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