Play test report for 3/7

So, It's only been about a week since we did a large number of play test with some really good feedback. That didn't leave time to change everything in those comments so things will overlap with the last report.

We can start first with the overall look with the game. With the questions regarding the art style, I was actually surprised to find that most people are satisfied with the game in it's current state. The remaining responses we're split between the more simplistic visuals of the initial concepts and the second set of concepts with the same color scheme. But for almost each person when it came to what art style they felt was best fitting or should be used, the games current style was almost always a first or second choice. So with the time we have left it might not be a bad idea to stick with them and just do some clean up ( which we've already been doing anyway ). When people commented about what they found most exciting, it was usually the visuals: the shapes and colors (people seemed to prefer the version with the cubes outlined in green). Tied for second was they found firing blocks to destroy things satisfying vs. absorbing them to get bigger. So it feels like the game is already on the right track.

When it comes to the gameplay itself, pacing is probably just about right for now because 66% responded is just right, the remaining percentage canceled each other out with being "Fast" or "Slow". Only one person made a comment about the blocks not gathering fast enough. Everyone else seemed to just want to click way too much and in observations this appeared to be linked to how fast they wanted or though they should be progressing. Players who understood how firing worked appeared to rank pacing closer to "about right". So I know we're tweaking how fast blocks gather but it might need adjustment in a few areas simultaneously to make sure the balance is maintained so the game doesn't get too easy. We can talk about our ideas in class, they should be limited to things we could implement in like a day or two and try out ourselves or with a couple of people. Overall though, we seem to be in good shape and just need a visual queues for a couple more things that involve feedback with the player object.

When it comes to the controls feeling awkward was about a 50/50 split as well. The people who left comments usually referenced there was either too much going on already on the screen to remember too many buttons to press. Or, simply that they weren't quite set up for them to use without losing their placing or hurting them in the game (one have must be moved to press L). I think we could remedy this by changing L to Space Bar or similar.

On the last note, the majority was likely to play again, many said they would purchase with reservations such as it being improved a little bit, having more levels, or only being priced around $.99 on the App Store.

So based on the feedback some priorities would probably be:

• Changing the controls they don't require moving the hand as much (moving L to another key)
• Updating the controls instructions screen a little bit, with the new button and maybe a small video also that demonstrates gameplay
• a few more feedback queues for the boss and the enemies and the player ( i know we have a bunch of new ones in place already). The more important one is maybe some longer delays in firing for the player and a visual queues for the player when they're not able to figure (players who understood it was not good to constantly fire all the time were much more calm and found and ranked the game more satisfying--not necessarily easier--than those who clicked too much and saw no results happening on screen for them)
• Integrating some sort of attack for the boss that is different than or in addition to spawning mass amounts of triangles ( I feel like a charge up-which could be the low point in action- followed by a multi directional blast-which could be the rise back into action-would be easiest to integrate)
• Cleaning up the graphics a bit more (aligning the boundaries a little better, etc)

Otherwise I think we already got all the other stuff covered and currently integrating based on the last round of feedback from last week. If you would like the results from surveys let me know, so I can forward them. It was a little more difficult to make them accessible because of the site used this time.