Playtesting the Temple

I had the textured and lit level playtested to see what could be improved and how the game played. Players played through the level at their own pace until completion and completed a survey about their experience afterward. I observed the players while they played and noted down my observations as well as verbal feedback given to me.

My Observations and Verbal Feedback

• Maybe put a pickup behind the Minotaur statue.
• The shadow the moon casts is confusing.
• Lighting needs to be brighter in a few spots.
• Players felt like they bumbled through the level rather than playing in a smart fashion; it wasn't clear that the silver key was needed.

The Survey

• Playertesters were given statements and rated out of 5 how much they agree with those statements.
• An example question is: “Enemy placements and encounters feel well-designed. (1: Disagree; 5: Agree)”.
• There were also a few prompted open-ended questions where playtesters could elaborate on their feedback.

Results

General Data

Comparison to Playtest 1

• Most of the elements the survey asked about had improvements.
• Gameplay actually was rated a little lower than the previous iteration.

Summary of Open-Ended Responses

Compliments

• Nice secrets.
• Great choice of textures and cool lighting.
• Good use of verticality.

Critiques

• There were some spots where the player would get stuck on geometry.
• The other silver key doors in the maze couldn't be opened and disappointed players.
• The "you need the silver key" after you got the silver key is confusing, it's hard to tell whether or not you have used the key or not.
• The pacing of some of the enemy encounters in the maze spikes a little too much at times.
• It's still easy to blow yourself up on accident when using the grenade launcher on the zombies in the maze.

Key Take Aways

• Move the moon so it doesn't cast a weird shadow.
• Make the situation with the silver key and the silver key doors less confusing and allow players to open the other two doors.
• Tweak the pacing of enemy encounters in the maze.
• The geometry needs some minor edits (find and fix the spots where players get stuck.

A Note

Switching out the rocket launcher for the grenade launcher in this iteration helped make it easier to not blow yourself up in the maze. The grenades don't explode right away if they don't hit an enemy directly. It forces players to be strategic with the grenade launcher rather than just hitting enemies dead on.

Iteration Ideas

• Make the Skybox bigger so the moon isn't so close to the ground and doesn't cast a shadow.
• Spread out the enemies in the maze a little more so the player isn't overwhelmed by their ambush.

Biggest Priority: The Silver Key Door Situation

Fixing this will help the level more of an accomplishment to complete rather than it feeling like players just got through it.

• Add two more silver keys for the other two silver key doors in the maze but hide them elsewhere in the room.
• Add a trigger to the doorway of the silver key doors that lets the player know that they have used their silver key and that they no longer have it.