QA testing

[SharktasticA]

Hey team 2!

If it is acceptable with you, I'm planning to have a testing branch opened and prepared for Friday 13th April (if we're lucky on that day ;) ), along with a testing plan posted here as well. We still have a few more things to merge but are almost ready. If you'd like to have an executable as well, lemme know and I've compile one as well.

[Muffi8]

Hiya, sounds good to me :) although why friday the 13th? What is happening on that day ?

[GreggsNBacon]

I won't be in the country but I should be able to do some extensive testing with my laptop :)

[SharktasticA]

@Muffi8 Nothing particular, just gives a formal time for us to have things merged by. And friday the 13th is the luckiest day of the year!

[SharktasticA]

Update Build will be done by tonight, along with a document outlining basic controls, scene descriptions, a few things we'd ideally like feedback for (obviously you're welcome to give feedback for anything as well), as well a list of responsibilities so you know who you can request more info from, ask a question or give feedback to.

[SharktasticA]

QA build is here! https://drive.google.com/file/d/14fO1FBjQuJjapr8my_h5SUZn7BndFUaq/view?usp=sharing

I should disclaim there had to be a few last minute compromises. I was originally planning to spend the entire evening in J208 merging everything, but due to the fact security kicked @ThallasTV and I out early, I've been stuck on my dying laptop that takes ages for Unity to import stuff and to compile things. The biggest ommissions were:

• asteroid generation - accessing the drilling game that is usually only accessible from interacting with asteroids has been hardwired to a number key so it can still be demonstrated
• probe configuration - normally a screen that would allow you to select your probe tier and upgrade, for testing number keys can be used for testing this

Our testing plan is written to reflect these omissions, with the controls at the start stating these quick access shortcuts for testing since their dependencies may not be in game yet. Speaking of which, our testing plan contains has all needed controls to operate the game, a rundown of major scenes and their content, and a few things we'd ideally like feedback for: 2018-04-13_testing-plan.pdf

We welcome any feedback you may have and I want to apologise for these last minute issues! One last thing, we haven't got a pause menu yet, so you'll have to ALT+F4 to close the game.

[GreggsNBacon]

Main menu o Does the menu function as expected? Yes, the menu is very pretty and intuitive. The Help menu could contain a bit of info about how to contact the devs or something like that. Occasionally I found the buttons do not work, but I am unable to accurately recreate this issue.

o Is the menu alright to use? "Alright" is an understatement. It is functional and looks good. I would have liked to have been able to change the graphics settings much.

o Opinion on the transitioning between various sub-panels in the Options panel It is smooth and looks nice. As stated above, there are a few issues.

• Solar system o Are the controls intuitive? Yes, however, I would have liked to have some thruster control (maneuver thrusters) from the keyboard.

o Is the viewpoint from the probe adequate or should the camera be positioned differently in relation to it? I believe the camera should move away from the spacecraft more, depending on how fast it is going.

o Should there be more or less scenery (space stations and satellites) littered in the scene? Maybe randomly placing some asteroids around the player and removing them when they are too far.

o Is the expanse too big for viable play? I do not believe so. It plays very well

• UI o Does the health bar and fuel bar work as expected? Would they be better as actual values instead of percentages? I believe the percentage is useful, but maybe even a total gauge of how much fuel there is in the craft. For future craft, it may be interesting for players to gauge the differences. I.E. Firepower or fuel?

o Is the mini-map helpful in anyway? Yes, it was really cool to observe when entering the atmosphere of a planet. I suppose the "awe" factor classes as helpful.

o Do the co-ordinates work correctly? I believe so, however, I do not believe they are needed. A waypoint system may be beneficial :)

• Minigame o Are the controls intuitive? No. They were moderately awkward to use in the beginning. The controls make the scenes very difficult without maneuver thrusters.

o Can you tell easy and hard object difficulties apart? Yes, the harder levels proved much more difficult to pass without bumping into stuff.

o Should the level be longer or shorter? Shorter, as the controls make the length an issue.

o Should the scene be contracted or expanded? Expanded. The scene feels quite claustrophobic inducing with the close walls and small tunnels.

More Feedback: I really loved the game overall and it was super cool! The concept is awesome, however, it would be nice to see a few more features added to the expanse. Nebulas and potentially spacial "anomalies" could be fun to interact with and may force the player to alter their play style! I also found not having an in-game pause an issue, as I personally like to pause the game when either going to make a tea or simply diverting my attention (as I was when writing this document). The music was ace! I really loved the rockets effects! It looks so cool!

[SharktasticA]

@JakedPotato Thankyou for you feedback!

I will be adding controls to the help menu pane today and adding the dev's details is certainly a neat idea. I'll attempt to recreate the button issues you're having. Asteroids were supposed to be in the game (since they're critical to gameplay), but I couldn't merge their systems in by friday. They should be present and properly generating for the final release. If I have time, I'll look into refining our controls.

[SharktasticA]

Also, as for the pause menu, we're adding that now. There are one or two issues, but it will be present for final release. It's essentially a scaled down version of the main menu with slightly different options.

[ghost]

@JakedPotato Thanks for feedback on the main menu - would be able to share which buttons sometimes fail to help determine the cause of this issue? Additionally, contact information will be implemented into the credits section to report bugs or send feedback

[JackSmerdon-zz]

Hey guys! Will and I wanted to do some QA testing (Sorry it's late!) and wondered if there was a more up to date version for us to test, maybe the pause menu you mentioned yesterday? Thanks 😄

[SharktasticA]

@JackSmerdon No problems. We're doing a lot of last minute changes, so just use the build on here.

[WilliamAkins]

Team 1 QA Testing Feedback.docx Here is you're feedback for the game. I understand that you may have made many changes since the build you had originally provided, but it is what I have to work with and I understand you're all too busy to get a more up to date version.

[JackSmerdon-zz]

Main menu o Does the menu function as expected? Yes, I was able to navigate the menu with ease.

o Is the menu alright to use? Navigating the menu was clear and simple. The way the menu faces the mouse is a good addition to the menu aesthetics.

o Opinion on the transitioning between various sub-panels in the Options panel The transitions look really nice and add a futuristic feel to the menu, which fits the theme of the game well.

• Solar system o Are the controls intuitive? The controls work as expected and I was able to control the probe as I intended.

o Is the viewpoint from the probe adequate or should the camera be positioned differently in relation to it? The viewpoint of the probe is appropriate for the game.

o Should there be more or less scenery (space stations and satellites) littered in the scene? The scenery is adequate as the solar system, realistically, wouldn't have any more scenery than there is already included in the game.

o Is the expanse too big for viable play? The expanse seems fairly realistic in size, so I wouldn't say that it is too big.

• UI o Does the health bar and fuel bar work as expected? Would they be better as actual values instead of percentages? The fuel bar seems appropriate for the game, and the percentage allowed me to quickly see how much fuel I had left. The health bar seems obsolete as the only way I discovered to lose health was to crash into something, which instantly killed you.

o Is the mini-map helpful in anyway? I didn't find myself using the mini-map at all.

o Do the co-ordinates work correctly? As far as I could tell, yes.

• Minigame o Are the controls intuitive? Fairly, although it's very hard to regain control if you bump into everything as it is so drifty.

o Can you tell easy and hard object difficulties apart? I didn't know there were easy and hard objects, as there was no explanation at the start of the minigame explaining what it was or what I had to do.

o Should the level be longer or shorter? I was unable to reach the end, so shorter!

o Should the scene be contracted or expanded? I think the tunnel is of an appropriate size.

Other comments:

Game looks great - the planets and the sun look really good. I experienced a large amount of screen tearing/graphical duplication, especially with some planets which I have shown in a screenshot below. I would like to see some better textures on the probe and the satellites to match the detail of the planets and background though. A clear objective to the game through the use of an introduction would be nice as well.

[SeanBrennan645]

Main Menu

• Menu functions well, was easily able to navigate to the different panels. Could not find any problems when using

Solar System

• The controls of the main probe were very easy to get to grips with
• The viewpoint from the probe felt appropriate
• Personally I feel like there should have been a few more object types in the scene, I know that there were asteroids which were omitted due to time which is understandable. As for the amount of objects that are currently in the scene, there felt to be an appropriate amount of objects
• The expanse felt like it was an appropriate size

UI

• Health and fuel bars both seem to be functioning properly, percentages also seem to be the most appropriate way to represent these values
• Mini-map was not helpful as it was far easier to distinguish where I was based off of the planets close to the probe
• Co-ordinates seemed to be functioning properly

Minigame

• Controls seemed to be the same as the main probe however due to the enclosed space of the minigame it felt a lot harder to control as sharper turns are required to be made. There were also problems when near the edge of the tunnel where the camera would go out of the tube when trying to move the character which made it difficult to see which way the character was facing (image shows the camera issue)
• I was unable to distinguish the hard and easy difficulties apart due to problems with controlling the object
• In the current state I feel like the level should be shorter
• The size of the tunnel seemed appropriate given the size of the probe

Also I would like to apologise for doing this so late

[Muffi8]

Hi, Team 1! First of all , great job! 🍭 Me and Elliot tested the game and these are the points that we both agree on:

1. Game crashes when you crash into anything (You probably know about this)

2. Low frame rate in main menu (Not sure if this is by design) although it is very professional and well made

3. It would be nice to hold right click and look around the ship instead of being locked to its backside

4. You can't hear screams in space! But some sound would make it much more entrancing

   • booster noise
   • radio when close to satellites(News, could have lots of lore)
   • general talking aboard the ship when manoeuvring or in specific scenarios like docking or increasing thrust ("Increasing thrust, captain!")
   • Alarm when crashing or low on fuel, general indicators (Screaaammming!)

5. While on 100% fuel holding s does not decrease fuel but still moves the ship

6. Last thing, maybe the flares are too bright on the back of the ship, I think a smaller more focused beam would look much better

7. Loved the patch notes idea tab! It means that you guys kept on track with what's going on in your game and when.

8. I really think in general the game is pretty professional just one last concern is that the planets look quite small even when you are flying next to them.

Hope you had fun and I hope I haven't offended anyone's work! 😄