Melissa Iteration II - miwamiwa/CART315GroupPrototypes GitHub Wiki

Balltower V3

Devlog

We finished adding all the number of floors (It stopped at 20 in the previous iteration). Added a menu with game instructions and the game title. Added UI (in-game controls instructions) for those who didn't use the powermove/whistle a lot, we hoped it would help remind them that they can. Also part of the in-game UI was the floor level since in the lowest levels, the balls would cover up the floor number. Comic Sans MS wasn't a fan favorite font so we changed it to a more acceptable one. One player said he would like to stand on top of the balls to have a better view of where the dog is, so we added physics that would allow the player to do so. There was an attempt at fixing the sound, trying to make it less overwhelming by reducing the listening area. We linked the spawning number of the crates to the level progression. People complained about the inconvenience of having to use the mouse just to powermove and would get the false impression that the mouse would move the camera, therefore we changed the powermove input to a keyboard input. Reduced the number of ball spawning in an attempt to reduce lag. We also added the dog "YIP" when it gets "powermove'd" by accident.

Playtest Questions

  • Did having the buttons on WASD, SPACE, O, and P make sense to you? (Was it easy to control)?
  • Did you use your whistle and "power move"?
  • Did you jump on top of balls to get a better view?
  • Do you feel overpowered by the environment or do you think your tools are fit to overcome it?
  • The number of arrow crates increases each level. How do you think that impacts the difficulty? at later levels?
  • How far did you go? Wanna go further? What's something that would make you want to beat your best score?
  • Did you find it useful to have a reminder of your moveset in the first few seconds of the game? Does it feel redundant?
  • Any notable glitches?

Playtest Response/Suggestions

The controls were a widely approved change. They liked the in-game UI as a reminder and it wasn't redundant to them, one person asked for it to last longer, so we will be changing the lasting time in the next iteration. They thought the crates were useful. People mentioned feeling a lack of motivation/reward for finding the dog and continuing the chase. People did try to jump on the balls to get a better view. Some found it more useful to spam the powermove to make way and have a clearer view to look for the dog instead of jumping and others used the whistle more. People were still having sound issues but we concluded that it was an OpenGL issue and that the executable build didn't have that issue.

Group Reflections

People seem to have enjoyed the game as we intended it to. The power move seemed a bit obsolete by the end so we'll have to augment the strength. We're going to add more time to the controls UI. We will have to find a way to give players an incentive to keep playing, some kind of reward or pressure.