Improve game mechanics to be more discoverable and purposeful

[cvan]

First off, let me preface this by saying I love The Composer. I am addressing these points because I want the gameplay to be easy, fun, and pleasurable for all! 😄

And, I know I covered some of this in #20, but I have a general confusion about the discoverability of objects in this game, the purpose of this game, and what I can/cannot do and what I should/should not do.

For atmospheric VR experiences, such as Irrational Exuberance, it's good to keep the gameplay simple and focus on how things feel and how the environment interacts to me.

I don't know what I'm doing when I'm moving the creatures around. I don't know what they're actually doing. I know their position creates a different musical arrangement, but it's not very distinctive enough for me to bother moving the creatures around. When I play this, I end up just moving the creatures around for my own amusement. It doesn't add much to me at least. And when the experience is over, I feel like I did something wrong. But I'm not sure what.

Kent Bye of Voices of VR interviewed Cabbibo about game mechanics discoverability and experiences. It's a short podcast and definitely worth a listen by anyone and everyone IMO: http://voicesofvr.com/336-surreal-experimental-art-blarps-unique-physics-based-game-mechanic/

Back to The Composer, I don't know why I'm waking up the creatures. And for me I have a hard time understanding why I have to keep sprinkling magic from my hands onto seemingly random rocks in my environment. And, then they awaken, but I don't know why (how much fairy dust was enough), what they are going to do now that they are awake, what I need to do with them, how to correctly(?) compose music with them, and what the correct way to experience this "experience" is.

And one last thing that I think is worth addressing: I don't know where I should be looking and moving throughout the experience. I filed issue #22 about room-size/chaperone issues, but beyond that, I still don't know what I should what's the correct place to look at or correct thing to interact with or not interact with.

I know that was a whole lot at once, but I hope I've been able to adequately articulate what I've been feeling when I play The Composer. Let me know if you have any specific questions. And I'd love to hear everyone's suggestions to mitigate some of these issues and improve the game mechanics.

Thanks!

[cvan]

Nice, I see you added a visual countdown timer in d3acaae. I'll have to try it out tomorrow.

Hope it addresses some of my concerns, but I also worry that adding a timer could spoil the fun, the amusement. I'll have to see it first of course.

But it makes me wonder if we're going to involve music, why is the experience timed? Shouldn't I be able to compose music at my own pace?

Or is the timer to just wake the creatures? And if I'm wrong, and the timer is for waking the creatures, why do we need one?

Why can't the creatures just always be awake?

I guess I mainly don't understand (a) why I need to wake up the creatures and (b) what/why I should pick them up and move them.

[arturitu]

Agree with the most, was made in another way to adjust to the deadline (Jun 17) but now is very improved since the new gameplay is finished 28f3f0a

[cvan]

I see that changes have been made, but most of these issues, at least to me, have not been addressed. In fact, the game mechanics, based on my personal experience and those of everyone I had who play-tested this game, are more difficult to understand.

[arturitu]

IMO is more easy to understand and more useful for all kind of room sizes, even it is playable for Oculus Rift or Daydream. But I can understand that for you is worst. The difficulty for me now is that at this point in remaking need to get something completely different.

[cvan]

Just sent an email with my observations and thoughts. Let me know if you'd rather I continue the discussion here.