Methodology

Overview ​

Any additional weapons and items that the player can interact with should be exposed to users to gauge their opinions and receptions to them. This allows us to achieve better integration with existing designs and create a more uniform design style to the game, enhancing the users experience. As such, user feedback will be requested for each new weapon design, specifically focusing on how well it fits into the art style of the game, the setting and genre of the game and the other pre-existing items and weapons. This can also include feedback for pre-existing designs if there are noticeable differences between the older and newer assets or if changes in design direction have negatively impacted untouched assets. This specific testing plan is in response to previous user feedback on the new weapon designs and demonstrates and exposes the next iterative designs for the additional weapons.

Justification

The main reasoning behind user design testing is to better integrate new assets into the existing design framework. These iterative changes were specifically made after previous feedback revealed consistency and integration issues with the planned new weapons, prompting a change in design direction and a more inclusive involvement with users during the design process. Without this additional testing, the weapons designs may be left in an inconsitent state, with the design direction differing from the rest of the game environment, creating noticeably unpleasent design differences.

Testing Process

User Brief

The basic aim of this user test is to gauge their opinions and feedback on the visual elements of the ingame player weapons. This is both in relation to the overall game and in comparison with eachother. As such, most of the tasks are more passive question and response orienteated to get better feedback.

Weapon Designs

Pre-existing Designs:

Sword:

Dagger:

Axe:

New Weapon Designs:

Baseball Bat:

Machete:

Sledgehammer:

User Tasks

1. The user will be shown each of the 6 different individual weapon sprites
2. The full set of questions will be asked relating to the sprites
3. The user will be asked to play the game and try attacking in the different directions with one of the weapons
4. Feedback will be recieved for that specific weapons animations
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each of the 6 weapon types

Questionnaire

1. Rank the 6 weapon designs from best ingame (i.e. the weapon you think would be the best ingame) to the worst, with 6 being best.
2. Rank the 6 weapon designs from favourite to least favourite
3. Categorise the 6 different weapons into distinct groups (should be as free form as possible but if confused, give examples such as 'heavy weapons', 'short weapons', 'weak weapons', etc.
4. If you did not categorise them into 3 groups, try to specifically create 3 groups for the 6 weapons. If you did do 3 groups, instead categorise them into 2 groups.
5. Discuss the groupings and reasonings behind them. If applicable, compare and discuss the previous groupings with the new 3 categories.
6. Do any of the weapon sprites feel out of place in comparison to the other game elements? (Show them the game and other assets)
7. Do any of the weapons feel out of place amongst each other?
8. Do any of them feel out of place in the environment/genre? (Post-apocalyptic, etc.)
9. Do the 3 new weapons feel like logical upgrades? (Axe->Sledgehammer, Sword->Baseball Bat, Dagger->Machete)

Testing

Participant #1: Significant observations and feedback

All tasks for each weapon was done initially first prior to conducting questionnaire.

1. User explained that there wasn't a specific weapon that was the best in particular. This was due to the fact that even though the weapons are different in shapes which is great but there were no effects that gives each weapon a unique feel to it.
2. Similar to the first question - in terms of explanation.
3. User categorize dagger & machete as short/fast weapons, axe & sledge as heavy/long weapons and sword & bat as normal/medium ranged weapons
4. Heavy and Normal weapons
5. User did not have sufficient gaming experience to provide thorough explanation but explained that it made logical sense to user based on user's experience.
6. Sword felt like it didn't fit the game's atmosphere - user prefer having (knife) dagger instead as a starting weapon. User explained that sword could still be in the game but should be super expensive to purchase since it feels like it can be super OP
7. Sword felt like it was out of place as mentioned in 6.
8. Only sword out of all the 6 weapons felt out of place.
9. Rather than upgrades. User explained that levelling weapons to have better damage, range or speed or even adding special effects that can be seen when an attack is executed would be better since it doesn't make sense to upgrade from an axe to sledgehammer since both weapons are entirely different in nature and visually.

Participant #2: Significant observations and feedback

• Strength order: dagger, bat, machete, sword, hammer, axe
• Favourite order: dagger (doesn't like handle), bat (looked sharp/not rounded), machete, axe, sword (handle looks too big), hammer
• Groups: Hammer & axe (big and heavy), sword & machete (sharps), bat (blunt and light), dagger (small)
• Felt like the bat was very out of place (not a weapon, something you just pick up -> more of a weapon of necessity)
• Felt the sword was okay but need to fix the sizing for the handle
• Upgrades: axe -> hammer, knife -> machete, bat -> sword
• Felt all the weapons were okay as you bought them from a person not found them

Participant #3: Significant observations and feedback

• Strength order: bat, dagger, machete, hammer, sword, axe
• Favourite order: bat (more simplistic, weird colour, shiny), machete, sword (big handle), dagger, hammer, axe (most detail)
• Groups: Hammer & bat (blunt), rest (sharp)
• Groups: hammer & bat & axe (two handed), rest (one handed)
• Groups: dagger (small) and rest
• Groups: (3x2) -> axe & hammer (big), sword & machete (medium length & sharp), rest
• Design of bat feels out of place (too clean, strange colour for a bat)
• Upgrades: bat -> hammer, machete -> axe, dagger -> sword
• Said our upgrade order would also work but need to switch so bat becomes sword
• Felt the designs all worked together and in game

Evaluation of Results

Common Issues & General Options for improvement:

A couple users mentioned issues with the sword, either feeling it didn't fit the atmosphere or having issues with the design

• Replace the sword with a separate weapon
• Redesign the sword (reducing the size on the handle, making it look more 'modern')

Multiple users mentioned the bat seemed out of place as it had no match, especially as an upgrade from a sword as it seemed like more of a base weapon (a user also mentioned an issue with the colouring).

• Replace the bat with a separate weapon
• Change the bat to the starting weapon and add a new weapon as its upgrade instead of a sword
• Recolour/redesign the bat (could also add more dirtiness to fit the theme)

Some users had issues seeing the axe and hammer as upgrades, seeing them either in the opposite order or not as connected as they are blunt & sharp.

• Have the axe as an upgrade from the hammer (blunt -> sharp)
• Have it be an upgrade from a small hammer (tool) to a large hammer (sledgehammer)

Generally a user also mentioned that having them as distinct upgrades was unnecessary

• Removing the concept of upgrades and just having classes of weapons grouped by similar properties

Currently Actionable Improvements:

• Replacing the sword with a crowbar
• Iterating on the bat design
• Classing into groups: bat/crowbar = blunt/medium, knife/machete = sharp/small, axe/hammer = heavy

Other changes will be considered during the final sprint as they either require more testing or alterations to designs which is a time consuming process.

Evaluation of Methods

Overall we were able to recognise issues with the second iteration of designs, allowing us to finalise the designs and begin on animations. However, it is likely that we could have gotten additional useful feedback if the users were given more than three options that were then cut down (or different design versions of the same weapons to identify aspects that are questionable).