Ideation for Game over Screens (Sprint 2)

Description

The idea of having a death screen is to inform the player that the game is over when they lose. It will show the current level that they're on and it will also ask them if they want to continue or exit the game.

How to play

• When the user health is 0, an image will appear informing the user that it's game over. Depending on their current level, each image will differ. The user can press "play again" to restart the level or "exit" to terminate the game.

Update:

• Due to insufficient time and coding experiences, the images are displayed on the left corner of the game with no functionality. However, this will be improved and iterated to ensure a working game over screen occurs by the end of sprint 3.

1. Ancient Greek-themed building with water flushing in and 'Game Over' text displayed over the screen

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1005678666384167004/1015923406434213928/game-over-screen-gif-drawing.gif

We decided to keep this animation for a different screen ('You Won' screen) which will be implemented in the future to tell the player if they have passed a certain level

2. Drawing each individual level out by itself

Level 1 - design 1

Level 1 - design 2

Level 2

Level 3

Testing Plan - Survey

Aim:

• To get the user to help decide which level 1 design they liked better and to also get feedback on whether all the level design suits the theme of the story
• To get feedback on the text orientation
• To get feedback on the idea of implementing a loading screen in the future

Questionnaires

1. LEVEL 1: Which design do you think suits the theme of the game the most from below (design 1 or design 2)?
2. LEVEL 1: Which font orientation do you like better?
3. LEVEL 1: If you choose design 2: Do you think the water looks better with ripples on top?
4. LEVEL 1: If you chose design 1 from Question 1, what are some improvements that can be made?
5. LEVEL 1: If you chose design 2 from Question 1, what are some improvements that can be made?
6. LEVEL 2: Do you think the colours and the overall design matches the theme of the game?
7. LEVEL 2: How can the design be improved?
8. LEVEL 3: Do you think the colours and the overall design matches the theme of the game?
9. LEVEL 3: How can the design be improved?
10. ALL LEVEL: Do you think using all the level designs in ascending order, displayed vertically is a good idea for a loading screen?

Responses and Analysis

Level 1 Feedback:

How can design be improved?

• "Add some more small elements for detailing, and play around w the colours of the structure" - User 1
• "Colours could be made brighter" - User 2
• "Perhaps have a gravestone or something, and i feel like the game over text is slightly to the right and not centred" - User 3

Improvements

(reference photo for the explanation below)_

Due to small amount of responses (4 users), it was not sufficient to make major design changes to the screens. More small elements for detailing is mentioned by user 1. Therefore to improve the design, we added more grass texture as well as rocks and flowers to the ground. From the feedback we attained from user 2, brighter coloured elements should be included in our first design (option 1) but our second design (option 2) has brighter elements. Therefore, we incorporated the grass, house and trees from option 2 and merge it with option 1 to incorporate the ideas together. User 3 mentioned about text alignments. Using the procreate grid guide, we ensured that the text are aligned for the final designs.

Final Design

Level 2 Feedback:

How can design be improved?

• "perhaps adding some pipes/plumber related items :D" - User 1
• "Considering atlantis is surrounded by water having lava and fire doesn't seem that integratable." - User 2
• "some moss i guess" - User 3

Improvements

To follow up with user 1's feedback, we added a barrel as well as a plunger to incorporate the plumber theme to the design. User 2's feedback is considered. However, due to the small amount of responses it was not considered as a major issue. To ensure that the majority agrees / disagree with this comment, more user testing will be conducted in sprint 3. This is applied to the third comment as well.

Final Design

Level 3 Feedback:

How can design be improved?

• "more detailed flooring, and also plumber related map elements" - User 1
• "that looks nice and spooky, perhaps you can introduce a ghost in it :>" - User 2

Improvements

For level 3, more barrels were added to incorporate plumber related map elements to the design (user 1). User 2 suggested that introducing a ghost would match the design more. However, none of the enemies has been developed for level 3. Therefore, no further major design changes will be made. More user testing will be conducted to ensure that everyone agrees with the major design changes of each level.

Final Design

Overall:

In terms of using all levels for the loading screen, 3 of the 4 people agreed. Since majority of the users said yes vs no, this will be applied in the next sprint and more user testing will be conducted to improve the design of the loading screen.

Future Testing Plans

From the analysis above, listed below are possible future testing plans for sprint 3 that will finalise the death screen designs for this game.

• After merging and all 3 designs together for the loading screen, a user test will be made to observe people's opinion and feedback
• User 2 didn't agree with implementing lava for the underground level (level 2). Therefore, a future user test will be conducted as well as design collaboration with the maps team to determine if lava should be included.
• A user suggested to introduce a ghost in level 3. To ensure that all design decisions will be consistent, a collaboration with the enemies team is needed and a future testing plan will be conducted in regards people's opinion about enemies displayed on the map
• Overall, since there were only 4 responses from the survey for this sprint, in class surveys can be made to ensure that more results are achieved and more feedback can be received.

Sprint 3

Death Screen Button Design

Similar to the craft button each death screen has buttons specific to them in terms of colour and design, this ensures an immersive polished feel to the game - even when you die that's important. Created in photoshop and illustrator, opted not to have user testing for this element as it's similar to existing designs and what was mocked up for sprint 2's death screens. (Created by Elias)

Death Screen Sound

Due to the main menu is a very upbeat sound this didn't convey the sadness of death, the rings of Saturn sound was put in its place as a temporary. To be tested and iterated on in sprint 4. This sound has no copyright attached to it. Rings of Saturn sound