Overview

In designing a level, it is important that appropriate difficulty is set, the level should not be too easy, so player won't be able to breeze through the level, it should still serve as a challenge for the player. However, the level should not be set to the point where it is almost impossible to complete the level. Difficulty of a level can be determined by several factors, the layout of the obstacles, the size of the game area, locations and crowdedness of the enemies and placement of items. All of which need to be tested to determine if the current difficulty is just right.

Testing Process

User Tasks

Participants will be trying to finish the level using the least amount of time, using any strategy they prefer, if the player dies along the way, they can try again as many times as they want, but death count will be recorded. At the end of the task, participants will be provided with a list of questions to answer. These questions will be used as an indication whether if a redesign is needed.

Question Lists:

• How difficult did you find the enemies layout to be?
• Was there a certain area that you found was extremely difficult to maneuver?
• How do you feel about the layout of the map? Was it spread out or was it too cramped? (i.e. location of trees, rocks, coins, etc.)
• How would you rate the difficulty of the level?
• Do you have any other comments or recommendations to add?

User #1 - Time: 10 minutes Death count: 2

1. Around the middle of the level, too many monsters had spawned there, if I did not have my abilities and armor, I would have died immediately.
2. There was a lot of area in the level to move in
3. The enemies seemed to be cramped around the middle and end of the level, but the rest seems ok.
4. I would rate this level difficult, it requires some strategic attacks to slowly kill the enemies one by one before reaching end of the level.

User #2 - Time: 6 minutes Death count: 1

1. I couldn't speed run this level like I did with level 2, the difficulty on this level is way higher than level 2.
2. Around the middle, I couldn't really move through the enemies with them pushing me around until finally pushing me into a corner.
3. Aside from the enemies, everything seems fine to me.
4. I'd rate it moderate to difficult.

User #3 - Time: 0 minutes Death count: 5

1. There are so many enemies and bullets around that kept getting pushed away.
2. Around the end, when I got swarmed by enemies.
3. The enemies were to cramped at the end.
4. I'd rate it highly difficult.
5. Make it spread out, or delete some enemies.

Evaluation

Looking into the Users gameplays, an obvious issue can be seen from the users' comments, and it's the layout of the enemies, there are too many enemies around the middle and near the safehouse that users starts to panic. There are also instances where player cannot even move as they were cornered by enemies, game could become unplayable if enemies layout are not fixed.