The first play test was a rough one because of the game being in it's early stages. When observing the players, I noticed that most of them struggled to grasp the play mechanics completely for about the first two minutes. Most of them had an "Ah Hah" moment around the 2-3 minute mark and the remaining 2 minutes of time was spent trying to "beat" the level.
Common themes in negative feedback were: needs more art/style, exploding mechanic didn't always work (or they expected more to signify it), feeling unaccomplished because the enemies never stopped appearing and there was no advancement, being unclear on core play for too long, feeling gameplay was tedious.
Common themes in positive feedback included: When it worked seeing the exploding mechanic work at a fast pace, seeing the player object "grow", destroying the enemies. Although many players had the complained of their being no clear objective or hinted at frustration, we noticed that once core play was accomplished and learned, they proceeded to play more anyway.
Planned changes for future versions include:
• Swapping player and enemy objects/art to build player attachment or investment in roles
• Increase opportunity for length and information player discovers in tutorial section before enemies spawn, so they're not frustrate in the middle of action by new expectations
• Adjust art so stages in gameplay are clearly identifiable to player (blocks could be red in border to signify attack power, player could change color to hint at travel speed or current gravity, etc)
• Fix bug where gravity release does not always work
• Possible give players more control over their attack, or multiple methods for attack
• Create spawn points for junk
• Create spawn point objects for enemies
• Incorporate an identifiable goal for level advancement
• Try a version that Incorporates a switch into controls instead of current "hold to" mechanics
• Change or add an attack to give player more manipulation capabilities
Results of survey located here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ApvsESNHKVh-dHFNX0twV2hENGNKX1haRnFOd2w0MFE&single=true&gid=0&output=html
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