Overview

User Testing will be conducted in relation to interactions between the player and enemies including attacks and collisions. The user will be given the controls for movement and the melee attack within the game. The safehouse will be disabled for this test so that the user can only play the first level in order to focus on the enemies rather than the objective. The intention of this test is to understand the best way for the hitboxes to be shaped, and for the attacks between the players and enemies to function.

Prompt

"Play the game with a particular focus on interactions between the player and enemies. Play this as many times as you need in order to answer the questions below."

Questions

1. How difficult did you find the enemies in the game? What made you feel this way?
2. How did you find the size of the enemies?
3. How did you find the physical collisions between the player and the enemies?
4. Do you think these collisions could be improved? If so, how?
5. How might you improve one of the enemies?
6. Any other comments or suggestions?

User #1

1. I found them moderately difficult as each one was different and I had to find out how to beat them
2. I believed the size of the enemies to be appropriate
3. I found there was a lack of significance in the collisions, just took away my health and that was it
4. I think they would be improved by adding knockback
5. Maybe the big guy could swing a weapon or the blood that the eyeball shoots could be sent back by the user's attack
6. I spawned on enemies sometimes

Analysis 1

The difficulty of the enemies seems to be exactly as we had hoped. As the user mentioned, they have to figure out how each enemy works in order to be able to defeat it without taking too much damage or dying. The knockback feature can be implemented in order to create a better visual feedback for the user when being attacked. The suggestions will be taken into consideration when creating tasks for the next sprint. The bug mentioned is known but will not be fixed due to its rare occurrence and the plan for the enemy spawning methods to use fixed positions as opposed to the current random spawning.

User #2

1. They were a good level of difficulty. They didn’t attack to quickly or slowly.
2. Good.
3. I think the player should be able to go through all the enemies.
4. They were ok, could be improved though to make it a little more realistic.
5. Make the zombies look more like zombies.
6. There could be more sounds.

Analysis 2

Currently, it is not possible for the player to go through enemies, even if the hitbox is removed, due to collision attacks and the knockback concept. Although, the next sprint can contain a timer for enemy attack intervals so that the player is able to move through the enemy while they are not attacking. The large are small enemies (referred to by the user as zombies) are not actually zombies. They enemies are currently undergoing changes in order to reduce this resemblance. These results have reinforced this decision. The sound effects are also currently being implemented and this choice has again been reinforced by the user testing

User #3

Before this test, multiple changes were made including fixing some of the bugs and implementing new hitboxes and collision systems including knockback.

1. The enemies were a good difficulty. I found that I could attack very quickly which made defeating some of them very quick
2. Given the size of the map, the enemies were a good size
3. The collision were pretty good. I would've like some sound effects to tell me when I got hit and some sort of feedback to let me know when I had damaged the enemy
4. Sound effects and feedback. Like knocking them back, sounds, or them going red or shaking
5. Some animations could be added to some of the enemies for attacking and things like that
6. Some enemies could spawn out of bounds or not load straight away

Analysis 3

When viewing the user's gameplay and reading their comments, it seems that the changes made have had a positive impact on the interactions and overall gameplay. The user mentioned sound effects many times. While we are currently working on implementing sounds, the team was unsure about when all of the sound effects should occur and what they should sound like. These results have provided a good base on which more testing can be done to determine the best sound effects to be used at the best times. Animations and more feedback are certainly features that can be implemented in the next sprint and should be discussed further. As for the bugs mentioned, these have been added to the bug list and should be fixed by the end of this sprint.