Playtesting Notes and what we learned

Playtesting notes:

Notes are based on playtesting instructions from CMPM 170 at UCSC.   This is where you would take notes of the playtester while they're playing and then 

Playtester 1

Notes while playing: 

 -my 2d game

-options buttons don’t do anything

-credits: 

Doesn’t seem like exit does anything. Now frustrated because it doesn’t work

-fullscreen it

-there’s some music and reminds me of cut the rope music 

-try arrow keys 

-move around really fast 

-menu button is super out of place

-no saving metric in place

-the assets feel like out of place

-damage from fridge

-try to run around and to collect

-lot of items

-items feel like I should be able to pick up and do 

-no pathfinding so it’s difficult 

-coins thing is randomly place and isn’t appropriate to the theme

-dark realm that is super underdeveloped and can go past the bounds. 

-hp bar 

-look for underworld 

-something happening, looks like a rendering bug 

-i have yet to find a coin so that’s confusing 

-i pressed r and that thing spawned

-that’s my weapon 

-stopped and take damage

-hit boxes are bugged 

- i want to pick it up but it isn’t working

-want to collect a lot of stuff 

-Maybe I have to run this robot through them. 

- I can launch cheese disks

-use arrow and reverse control 

-got an animation that stuns’

-candy heals me 

-coins <- where are they

-I can’t find them

-made progress in the game and it was painful to get there

-resume from here and resume from here

-logic in place but the ui element doesn’t make it intuitive. 

I like : 

-music and duck art and the noise that it takes damage 

-systems work 

I want: 

-more initiative and know what you’re going to take damage from since it’s the same

-why can’t you take damage before you pick up the candy

What if:

-the mobs to be more aggressive and hitbox to be better 

Additional questions: 

Did it feel like anything was missing?

The UI and the hitboxes were just clunky. 

What was your favorite moment or interaction?

Picked up the piece of candy and launched the robots with R.

What was your least favorite moment or interaction? 

Dying to random stuff and the traps. 

When did you feel the most clever?

Launching the disk with c 

Was there anything you wanted to do that the prototype didn't let you do?

Inventory that I could manage items and consume them to regain health.

If you had a magic wand and could change any aspect of this prototype or your experience, what would it be? Unlimited budget and time.

Mobs are more aggressive and have pathfinding and fix the UI. I would fix the quests and add a voiceline. Pop up to interact with the npc. 

Playtester 2:

Notes while playing:

 -how do I move? 

-strawberry? what do I do? what this?

-why isn't there a pause button 

-are these coins?

-what do I do with them?

-it's kinda disappearing

-menu and icon are messed up 

-AHHHH <- took damage

-that heals? 

-i can go through buildings 

-okay

-im not collecting anything and it says there are coins

-fruits heal 

-are these npcs

-can't run over this guy, does he do something

-are these vents supposed to do something 

-sometimes it (buildings show up over the chracter). 

-options don't do anything

-oh oops <- took damage 

-what am I suppoed to be doing> 

-this lilypad asset is on the road instead of the water. 

-how far can I go out? 

-oh I can move them 

-game over

-game froze after I pressed exit

-it only stunds 

-that's the only prompts for that npc? 

-the text isn't going away 

-lilypad asset is of here 

-WOAH <- summoning robot 

-ohhh 

-where is bro going? 

-can I not shoot a projectile down? 

-what do the robots do?

-where is he going?

-goes the opposite way of where you want him to. doesn't go up or down

-don't know what to do 

-why does it work something and not (for the summon) 

-do I kill all of them? 

-not as obvious for the pause 

I like:

-smooth graphics 

I want:

-there was an instruction menu for it to be more visible and it's in magenta and I didn't read the menu thing that said what to do -the text was more aligned 

What if: 

-more interactions with the npcs and the environment to know more about the world? 

Did you feel like anything was missing?

Aside from instructions, I don't think anything was missing if you were playing as is. I don't know what the building does and I wanted a description of it. Players should know that the fruits heal

What was your favorite moment or interaction?

- liked the running around. music was chill.

What was your least favorite moment?

-how easy it is to run into obstacles

anything the game didn't let you do?

interaction with the builidng and some descriptions and what they were there for 

magic wand: i put it on a larger scale and have an actual story

Playtester 3: 

 Notes while playing: 

 -HELLP

-the freak 

-i don't know how to get rid of the text box

-bro what is this

-I died

-im not getting the mesage

-furious spamming of keys trying to get out of text box 

-am i done? 

I like: 

There was nothing to make note of. 

I want: 

-you could remove the text boxes faster

-it was made more clear on what to do 

What if: 

-There was a dash to move around faster

-there would an aura to see where you needed to go 

What did you feel was missing? 

Parts of the map were cut up and there weren't any bounds

Couldn't interact with everything. There were doors but I couldn't go inside. 

What was your favorite?:

-Summoning the robot

Least favorite moment or interaction:

-When it just randomly did a game over

When did you feel the most clever:

-When I found out you could eat the food off the ground

Was there anything you wanted to do that the prototype didn't let you do? 

-I wanted to go into the vents and buildings 

If you had a magic wand and could change any aspect of this prototype or your experience, what would it be? Unlimited budget and time.

-Boss in a random corner and having a skill tree. 

Conclusion:

The conclusion that we found from playtesting this game was that while people liked the art style and being able to summon a robot, they didn't really find the UI appealing as it was a strange color and felt that it should have been improved. They also felt like the game should have had world bounds for the world as well as finding the game confusing because there wasn't a clear objective. Some of the obstacles were too hidden and made it difficult to know which obstacles were which as well as some graphical bugs with the character and being able to run over buildings that should have collisions. Most of the issues in playtesting were just UI related and the game not having a clear message on what to do and what controls were needed to play the game. The playtesters also wanted to have more npc interactions and to be able to explore more and if we had more time, we would have incorporated this feedback and improved on this game starting with the UI.  From this, we learned that we should have had a bigger focus on the UI and guiding new players instead of just expecting them to know what to do. To remedy this, we would just include exclamation marks on the NPCS and also have them give out quests to finish out the game. Objects would have collision with world bounds and some buildings would have a description of some sort, and you could enter some of the buildings.  Even with a decent mechanic, if the player has no direction, then they don't want to play the game and would rather play something more interesting. For the next time, we should have focused on the mechanics first and then find ways to build up the UI so that players know what to do.