PLAYTESTING QUESTIONS FOR PROTOTYPE 4

[Naomi-Ifergan]

(Keep in mind that the score never resets when playing again. This will be fixed for the final version of the project).

1. In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now?
2. What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions).
3. When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this?
4. For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves?
5. Any other comments or feedback!

[sebchampoux]

In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now?

I have not tried the first version of your prototype so I can't speak about the improvement since the first version. From my test, the initial camera position is good and allowed me to complete the level fairly easily. In a 3D platformer it is very helpful though to be able to control the camera position, as some obstacles are better seen at different angles. Your prototype had that, but the camera rotated around itself rather than around the main character, which wasn't helpful. Thus I ended up keeping the camera view at the default. If the camera rotated around the character I believe it would be very useful.

What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions).

Frankly I had not even noticed the timer before reading the question, so I guess that time was not an issue for me :p. More seriously though, I re-tried another time and payed attention to the time. 4 minutes was ample time to complete the level for me. It took me about two minutes to finish the level, and this includes my 3 falls at about 2/3 of the level. The obstacles aren't too challenging and the level is not very long so time was not an issue.

When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this?

The alternate color scheme looks nice! Considering it is darker than the first version and it is played after losing, it felt to me like a purgatory - a second chance to redeem yourself.

For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves?

I thought it was a bug before reading this question. I'm sure you did that for a good reason but it felt kind of odd to me.

Any other comments or feedback!

I really like the color scheme of the game in general, and the water texture on the ground. A physics detail that could be fixed, is that when the character stands on a rotating platform, he stands perfectly still instead of following the movement of the platform. I think it's probably not simple to implement but it looks weird so I thought I'd mention it in case you want to try to pull it off. Apart from that, nice job, imo this is coming together nicely.

[CocoChao]

• In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now?

I remember playing your previous version and I can notice the small changes you made. It kind of solved the issue, but it was hard to locate the platform after the two rotating squares towards the end. I had to try again many times to land on the platform and it frustrated me a little.

• What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions).

Yes, 4 minutes is more than enough. If you can raise the camera and lower the angle a little bit more, it will be even more feasible. I was able to finish the game in less than 4 minutes on my second try. However, the timer was not really working as I was able to collect the cubes after the timer was up.

• When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this?

I thought by reading this question that if I press “p”, the colors of the game would change. But I did not notice any difference. I like the colors and the water material. I suggest that you change the text color and add a solid color as a background to make it more readable.

• For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves?

N/A

• Any other comments or feedback! It was a nice and simple game overall. The only issues are probably the score counter, which counts after the timer is up. It also combines the points for the first and second game when I press “p” to play again.

[PatrickChavez]

1. In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now? The problems I have with the current camera is that it can be difficult to know where the player lands: whenever I jump, the camera hides the below platforms. In addition, with the way the lighting is implemented, I can’t use the avatar’s shadow to know where I land: because the shadow is at an angle and not directly below the avatar, I have trouble knowing whether or not I’ll land on a platform or miss it completely.

2. What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions). I think that 4 minutes is sufficient to complete the stage. For me, the game wasn’t that hard on my second attempt, probably because I got used to the controls and stage layout. Even though I fell off a few times during my second run, I still managed to beat the game with 2 minutes and 17 seconds left.

3. When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this? This might be because I had to downgrade from version 2020.3.0f1 to 2020.2.1f1, but when I pressed “P” to play again, the colors did not change. As for the default colors, I think that the hues of blue and purple help to give the game a nice mellow vibe.

4. For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves? I think it’s a necessary evil to accommodate the rotation of the character controller while preventing the main camera from rotating with the character.

5. Any other comments or feedback!

• The controls are kind of stiff: there seems to be a 1 second delay when performing an action and sometimes when I press a button to slightly change my direction, my character will keep moving in that direction until I press another button.
• This might be a version downgrade problem, but the UI is incredibly tiny. The purple text, combined with the turquoise wall at the start of the game, made me have to check the canvas text in the editor.

Screenshot of the UI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-VH8tZkZUbRWPLFJ4YXJTH-UxLnrSj9B/view?usp=sharing

[LiliaIsABell]

1. In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now? I think it is fine. I do however struggle figuring out how to move on the long horizontal platforms since I had difficulty telling where exactly my character was. I think that for this game it may be helpful to switch between camera angles, one from the back and one on the side. But despite that, I think it is good.

2. What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions). I liked the timer. It definitely urged me to hurry up which then made me do a bunch of mistakes. It could be great to have some consequence when the time is up, for example you can no longer collect any more cubes. I thought the 4 minutes were sufficient. In my first try I didn't make it and I then succeeded on the second try. I could be fun if the timer stopped when collecting all the cubes, to see how much time we had left.

3. When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this? I didn't notice any color changes. If it did happen, it was very subtle.

4. For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves? I found it really distracting, especially when I would try to read the text on the screen and the moving background won't let me.

5. Any other comments or feedback! I think the text and background should have a better contrast because I had trouble reading the instructions and seeing the score. Also, I would have like to see a sort of resolution when collecting all the cubes, for example text saying "Congrats" or the character turns yellow when winning and blue when losing. Overall, I think the game was just difficult enough to not be to frustrating.

[amandaclement]

In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now? Although I can't compare it to your previous version, the current camera angle makes it a bit difficult to gage the distance between platforms. It's not a huge issue since it's fairly easy and quick to get back onto a platform and re-adjust once you fall off, but if there was no plane to land back on, this could potentially become frustrating to the player. I think a more top-down or 45 degree angle could help with this.

What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions). I was able to complete it in about 3 and a half minutes on my first try so the time seems fair, but it could be nice to decrease the time to add some difficulty to the game.

When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this? I didn't see a change when I pressed P. Maybe it didn't work on my end or was too subtle for me to notice? But I do like the idea of the colour scheme changing when you restart the game!

For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves? I wasn't sure whether that was intentional. I think it could be interesting to include a more subtle change, like a slight modification to the colours, instead of a full rotation since it is a bit distracting.

Any other comments or feedback! The text is a bit difficult to read since it lacks contrast with the background so I would suggest slightly darkening the text colour or making it much brighter (closer to an off-white). Overall, I appreciate the simplicity of the game - it's straight-forward and intuitive to play, without any unnecessary UI elements or distracting bells and whistles!

[SylvainTran]

(Keep in mind that the score never resets when playing again. This will be fixed for the final version of the project).

1. In my previous prototype, one of the main problems was the camera angle which challenged the players when it came to jumping from one platform to another as they were unable to see where the next platform was situated. How do you feel about the camera’s position now?

It seems to be similar? For example the first rectangle platform was hard to judge in terms of depth.

2. What do you think of the timer? Do you think 4 minutes is sufficient time to complete the game? Why or why not? (Please answer both questions).

It does make it feel like you have to rush a bit. I believe it is a lot of time for it, because the level is relatively short to get across and it is not too difficult.

3. When you click ‘p’ to play again, what do you think of the colors of the game? Is this feature a nice addition to the game? What are your thoughts about this?

I'm not sure if it's on my end but I don't get anything after pressing P.

4. For those who didn’t playtest this game before, what do you think about the background rotating whenever the player moves?

I think it's the start of a potential mechanism that could be used, but it would require a lot of level design? It makes you think about separate perspectives. I'm a fan of camera stuff, but I'm not sure what you're trying to do exactly with it right now. Are you trying to make the player be able to go in two different dimensions or make them only see a way if they used the perspective in the background? I think those may have to be clarified a bit!

5. Any other comments or feedback! It's nice side-platforming. I would like to see a personal touch of yours a bit, in terms of aesthetics, if that is within what you wanted to do!