Play Testing
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We got the chance to have our game play tested twice by our colleagues, once during the alpha phase of production and again during the beta phase, and during these play tests we had a survey for our testers to fill out where we asked them about the different aspects in our game like the different mechanics and controls, as well as the overall feel of the game. Alpha play test: During the alpha play test, we had our testers try out a build of the game which had the basic core mechanics of our game Behemoth, primary and secondary shooting, shields, power up, movement of the cannon, and taking damage. We had a losing condition but no win condition and a very basic level design which featured two out of the three enemy types in the game. We were looking to get feedback mostly about the game as a whole, wanting to know if all these mechanics we have added to the game have helped us convey the theme of our game, operating heavy machinery. The feedback we got on that question in particular was overwhelmingly positive, almost all of our 29 testers said that they felt that they were operating a heavy machine and that the decision we took to not use the mouse as a source of input, which the original concept document suggested, was a really good idea. Most were satisfied with the overall controls except for the shield controls as well as the shields themselves, thinking that it was hard to know when a shield was active since they had a cool-down, and we got a few remarks about the pixel-art art style complementing it, however many thought that the game was too gray. The feedback we got helped confirm that we were moving in the right direction, especially the feedback about the overall feel of the game. It was obvious that there had to be some changes especially to the input and the shields. For the shields, we decided to remove the cool down and instead add activation time, and with the addition of animations and audio to the shields, we thought that would make them better to use. Other than that, we just followed the beta backlog that we had set. Beta play test: The build we used for this test had 70% of the animations and sounds we wanted to have, a more thought out level design, all enemy types, and of course the changes we did after the feedback from the last play testing. We had a win condition and added a reload mechanic, were the player had to input a pattern after a certain number of shots to reload his cannon. We wanted to know if the new mechanics still helped convey the aesthetic goal, if the sound affects music fit the overall feel of the game, and if we did a better job with the shields. We had 21 testers this time around, and the feedback we got regarding the overall theme was more positive than before, and people especially thought the reload mechanic added a lot to that. We got more feedback on the shields, and it was apparent that we had improved them, the only thing the testers did not like was that you had to hold down the button to fully activate the shield instead of just press it. The feedback on the sound was really positive, no negative comments there, and same goes for the art style except for the fact that we got the “your game is too gray” comments again. What was very obvious though was that the game needed a proper tutorial phase, and not just some text on screen telling the player what to do.
After going over the feedback as a team, we decided to put more focus the tutorial phase of the game, and agreed that some major changes had to happen to the background because that was what made the game too gray, and not only that, it also made the enemies harder to see. As for other things, we wanted to add more visual and audio feedback to the game to let the player know what was happening. Summary: Play testing has helped us make sure we are moving in the right direction and in turn made the development process much more efficient by helping us detect problems we were not aware of, or have given less priority too. It is also a nice motivator and confidence booster to see people enjoying your game.  |
