[Beta] Playtesters' raw comments

Conversations with playtesters in the comments.

Thomas Gatt:

Thomas

ery addictive some notes: pause xi wiehed naqa minus ma jkunx jaf li escape il hoss tal gun dejjaqni il-hin kollu l-istess il-laptop qed jidaj haha (xel il-fan u ghaddej al alla tieghu) l-ahffarjiiet ta taht ma tajtx kashom ax kont mohhni fiz zombies il wave completed fin nofs dejqitni naqa wkoll ]ax jekk ikun hemm xi haga ma narahiex sew ma ndunajtx ma l-ewwel li nista nuza l-gun hehe ktibt 'bomb' biex forsi jmutu kollha ha ha il-computer naqa mifquh l-idea ogbitni mmens il graphics ta l-ostja hekk ix xita u hekk hafna fun u addictive man tant li t tfajla ggiledet mieghi lol il-font ogobini ogbitni hafna seriously kieku ma nghidlek xejn mil-ewwel

Lee Disa:

loghba kbira ghamiltu siehbi; hadt buzz u originali

zewg affarijiet li zgur innotajt, hafna drabi hemm repetition ta l istess kelma tkun qed titkeb kelma u taqa listess kelma ezatt u fuq l ahdar mhux jidherli tkun qed tikteb fuq kuluri ohra jurik li qed tikteb, fuq l ahdar le. meta jkun gej xi zombie gas mal pjanca lejk, ikun ahdar jew orange sew ? jekk mhux sejjer zball kif tibda tikteb jurik bl ahmar fuq l istess kelma bhal ma jghamel bil kaxxi issa qed iggibni fid dubju ha mmur nerga nara zomm pussy qed nilghab e ghax lewwel darba fqajta idi ok fhimt x qed jigri, eventwalment fuq il kliem il hodor taz zombies, ghamiltu iswed u vera ma jidirx peress li ambience vera skur lohrajn ghandek kulur izjed eye catching li script jahdem qieghed, just jien litteralment ma bdejtx nara l iswed pero li ghidtlek ta listess kelma zgur qed tigri, issa jew id db minn fejn igib il kliem ghadu naqra zghr, jew ir random ghandha xi nejka hafifa mil bqija musika, animation, sound, visuals, ui u style vera bil bajd. Prosit gieli listess kelma taqa anka 3 times in a row.

also, il main font ma nuzahx fuq affarijet zghar ghax mhux readable, ezempju il credits ismek u ismu mhux daqshekk readable

i was impressed, issa jew ghax naf what it takes biex issir imma im not easily impressed kif ghidtlek il bierah, hawn hafna kumpaniji u rjus kbar li hargu bi prodotti u software li anqas jmorru vicin ta li ghamiltu intom gol basement i want to get involved

ghada kemm qatlitli il pc sound ma kelliex kelli noqtol il firefox ma nafx x gara ghax mix xoghol lghabta ok u bis sound ukoll

Adrian Abela: Impressions:

Don't like the menu music much. The ingame music is neat though
Graphics are awesome
Game takes too long to load. Precache it while in the menu or something?

To answer the questions: ) They were clear enough for me ) I tried the sniper powerup, found it too impeding. Didn't have time for the rest as I was typing. ) I tried it on insane. 16 waves ) I liked the game music. Hate the menu music ) I didn't like that some of the words were americanised. Also you might need a filter on the dictionary - I got "mensis" and "condoms" ) Quite liked all of it ) Game gets too repetative after a while. I realise that its just the nature of the game and there's nothing you can do to change the main formula. ) Sure *) Well done.

Oh, I just remembered another issue. When you type letters in they disappear. But sometimes there's more than one word which starts with those ltters visibile - so you end up looking at zombies with non-existant words, which then pop into full words when you finish whatever it is you were typing. To explain better: You have a zombie with "Hello" and a zombie with "Heart", you start typing "Hello" and the other zombie (before you hit the o) has the word "art" now. This breaks the chain rather horribly. Maybe instead of maing them disappear, make them more prominant, or improve the AI to determine which zombie I'm killing, and make the other one visible again

Julian Zammit:

Hey guys,

Great job with the game! Tried it on the fastest setting at medium difficulty. Played smoothly but started getting slower over time (could be an issue on my end though).

Never seen a typing game quite like this before. Enjoyed it!

A few things I'd point out:

The music could get tedious after a while. I tried playing it on a higher graphics setting and it took ages to load, so not being able to mute the music was a tad annoying. Maybe include a mute button somewhere?
I mentioned this on your note but getting back to the main menu from options etc isn't entirely clear. Using Esc works fine but as far as user-friendliness goes it's not that intuitive. Adding a little [Pause] or [Return] somewhere on screen would do the trick in my books.
UI-wise: I think it's pretty well set out. Only thing I'd point out is that although the words were clearly shown, the zombies weren't always that clear... though that could be due to the graphics setting.

I didn't play for too long so I might have missed out on stuff but I wasn't too clear on any other features included other than typing to shoot. Are there any alternate guns to access, what does pressing Tab do (noticed a swirly thing next to the gun in the HUD saying that)?

Otherwise, keep it up guys! Will try to give it another go later.

Cheers

FT (Trapper)

) Did you find the words on top the zombies' head difficult to read, or were they clear enough for you? I first tried the game with Normal difficulty and the text was pretty easy to read. However it did not seem challenging enough, so I went for the insane mode and yes, at this point it became really difficult to read the text mostly because of the number of zombies spawning (and when they spawned behind one another, it really impaired the ability to read the words)... ) Did you find the powerups beneficial to your gameplay experience, or did they just get in the way? Maybe you didn't even realize the game had powerups? I did realize that there were powerups but I didn't really see how they contributed to my experience. A 'tutorial' level could possibly help by slowly bringing up the concept of the powerups and how these help the player. ) Did you find a difficulty which suits you? Which was it? I think I would do fine with Insane difficulty if it weren't for the problem pointed out in question 1 If not, I should probably be fine with the Hard difficulty ) What do you think about the choice of background music, both for the Main Menu and the game? In my personal opinion, the music is slightly too upbeat (considering its a 'zombie theme') and the especially the song played during the game seems too hi-tech / sci-fi to fit a zombie survival - I personally would go for a more grim approach hehe ) What was the thing that annoyed you the most about the game? Point 1 (text was hard to read with many zombies), since it directly affected my game experience ) What was the thing that you liked most about the game? I think it's a somewhat innovative mean of typing games incorporated by 3Dish graphics of zombies approaching the player. P.S. I read that there is a primary and secondary weapon but I did not figure out how to switch from to another. ) What would you change from the current state of the game? Nothing more to add (except for the previous remarks) and the remarks left at the end of the message ) Will you play the game once it's officially released? Definitely *) Anything more you'd like to add?

A 'Back' button should be present when accessing the Options menu (even though Esc works)
The legibility of the font used in the About screen (especially the letter 'I' is really hard to read). This can be fixed by increasing the character spacing.
A better indication should be given of those words that travel faster towards you than others - unless I was imagining that some words travel faster than others
I would avoid listing 'Pussy' as a difficult, since it may be considered offensive to some people.
Unless there is a particular use for the mouse, stop the game from capturing the cursor since it becomes somewhat annoying to regain control of the mouse (without alt-tabbing). Tested on 17/05/2013 - 01:34 OS: Windows 7 x64 Web Browser: Google Chrome v. 26 --- I do intend to re-test the game again at a later time, but this is my feedback so far

Reached Wave 14 on Hard then it kinda stuck a little and died before I knew it lol, but it was entertaining nonetheless

Two slight observations:

Try not to include the same word more than once at the same time
Try to make the word being typed more prominent (it does show up in red / blue well enough most times) but some times it doesn't really distinguish itself from the rest - I had taken a screenshot, but then I did a copy operation :| (which removed the shot)

Sven Neumann: Screen spacs could be used more effectively. 90% if action happens in 20-30% of space. Change perspective to waste less on the player foreground and spend more on the target area. Move wave overlay to bottom to avoid obscuring more of the valuable screen real estate.

*) Did you find the words on top the zombies' head difficult to read, or were they clear enough for you?

In the 'Insane' difficulty level it was impossible at times to read the names. One possible solution would be to make inverse colour of the overlapping letters, Or even better, place each name in a box, so that the player can distinct what is part of which name.

*) Did you find the powerups beneficial to your gameplay experience, or did they just get in the way? Maybe you didn't even realize the game had powerups? Not sure how these are working, or what is the purpose of each. Nicholas Frendo:

*) Did you find a difficulty which suits you? Which was it? Aha.. I think Insane was the funnest for me I'm a pretty fast touch typist.

*) What do you think about the choice of background music, both for the Main Menu and the game? The Main Menu music feels like its from a DOS game of the 90's, so geeky moi likes alot!! Haha. Game Play music if fun as well. It's suits the action going on.

*) What was the thing that annoyed you the most about the game? No sounds when zombies die! .. It can be another of those sort of addictive, satisfaction giving sounds in the game. Killing zombies And oh.. need to make zombies a little more visible in the background. It's too dark.

*) What was the thing that you liked most about the game? It doesn't need a mouse. Hence can be played also when a flat surface is unavailable.

*) What would you change from the current state of the game? Um.. not sure, maybe an optional map with dots showing where the zombies are. But it's not of much use I guess. And the lighting/visibility of zombies as I mentioned before.

*) Will you play the game once it's officially released? Yes, I do count it as a game I'll get back to. This is the kind of game I look for. I don't like long story games. Like, Jet Pack Joyride, Bloxorz and Cut The Rope are something I enjoy. So this fits that list in my opinion.

*) Anything more you'd like to add? Well Overall it's something I really enjoyed, and even my mom did haha! My girlfriend Cynthia gave thumbs up as well. Good job guys

Matthew Cumbo

) Did you find the words on top the zombies' head difficult to read, or were they clear enough for you? • Clear enough to read. However, when two zombies are behind each other, the two words are layered on top of each other and this might be comfusing. ) Did you find the powerups beneficial to your gameplay experience, or did they just get in the way? Maybe you didn't even realize the game had powerups? • They are good ideas, I would add one where all zombies on screen are eliminated automatically (for emergencies ) ) Did you find a difficulty which suits you? Which was it? • Playing on pussy, I reached wave 37 and got tired typing • Playing on insane, I reached wave 7 (using mines) • Didn’t play the other difficulties though – Insane is awesome, I love a challenge ) What do you think about the choice of background music, both for the Main Menu and the game? • Very appropriate for the setting of the game ) What was the thing that annoyed you the most about the game? • The issue I mentioned in the first question ) What was the thing that you liked most about the game? • The challenge of playing the game on Insane mode; you have to be really fast. Also, I really enjoyed the music. ) What would you change from the current state of the game? • Not much; simply add more powerups and fix the issue I mentioned in the first question ) Will you play the game once it's officially released? • I generally play higher end video games, but as a challenge between friends on facebook, this would be cool *) Anything more you'd like to add? • I would add an actual ‘back’ button on screen in the settings menu; the Esc key didn’t come to my mind immediately, I assumed it would be it because I play other video games, but people who play games like this might look for a button on screen.

Neville Attard

The core mechanic seems to be there and was quite fun playing it. Here are some random comments: I tried the pussy level :). That type of language depends which target audience you are aiming. What is your target audience?

Is there any level progression? I felt that the difficulty never changed. Got to level 13 and then left him die. Wanted to see what happens :)

There seems to be lack of audio feedback. The only sounds I'm hearing are the machine gun when I complete the word. And the heartbeat. Is the heartbeat constant? It seems like it is always playing, rather when the player is panicking. Some potential audio feedback might be: -hitting a valid key -hitting an invalid key (this is quite important to panic the player) -completing a word

Also improvement in the visual feedback might be great. These might be some fancy particle systems, or zombie body parts potentially flying towards the screen occasionally.

In my case I always had the night goggles on. This might look monotonous to a casual player. Did I perhaps press a key by mistake to turn this mode on? Is day/night/rain random? Would be cool if there is some day/night cycle perhaps... but that is just a visual threat.

To keep the player hooked more, you might need to add some combo system, where the player makes consecutive streaks without stopping for X amount of seconds.

Will you have achievements?

Will you have facebook integration to see how your friends are doing?

What could be funny is adding some comments to the player's avatar ala duke nukem. This might give him some character. Right now there is no emotional attachment between the player and avatar.

Did you consider playing around with the camera? Perhaps moving the camera to a closer, over-the shoulder, when he has typed 2 letters of a word, for example. This might make a better connection for the player and the avatar and get the player more inside the action.

The text seemed quite aliased when it's far off. Sometimes I misread it in fact. Also it is quite annoying having two words overlapping. Perhaps having a background for the word might help. Make the text as a billboard always facing the camera. Consider making it pixel perfect. Only drawback is the player wouldn't then have a clue of the distance. But at least he could read it.

I liked the fact of crates hitting the zombies, however if you're already typing the zombie's word might piss off the player. What if you give some bonus when that happens, coupled with some visual feedback. That might feel the player lucky. Players really like feeling lucky.

I think I didn't get the opportunity of switching weapons. Didn't know how.

Guided tutorial. You might want to think how to add a very quick tutorial. One non-moving zombie, and you guide the player what he needs to do. Maybe pause the game when you want to introduce a new element, e.g. to switch weapons.

The score summary needs some more sound effects. Also make it count up faster. Perhaps make the animation time based rather than speed based. So if you kill a lot of zombies, you don't have to wait for the counting up of numbers. Perhaps you don't need to count up but just punch them on screen, shaking the camera with each punch. Also a more emotional attached in the score summary might help, e.g a backdrop of a zombie coming to eat you covering most of the screen.

The bloody font is not that readable sometimes. Consider changing it. A military font might be more adequate. Choose your fonts carefully.

What are your thoughts on how you're going to monetize this? You have potential for having a virtual store to buy ammunitions, revive, etc.

Alican Haman:

1) Did you find the words on top the zombies' head difficult to read, or were they clear enough for you?

With the update , it was a step in the right direction because now the typed part of the names are no longer too grey that you can read. However when 2-3 zombies come from the same direction it delays your typing , you have to wait till they get closer so you can pick apart the letters.

2) Did you find the powerups beneficial to your gameplay experience, or did they just get in the way? Maybe you didn't even realize the game had powerups?

Powerups were very useful I used landmine extensively to put mines everywhere , the 3 main stacking bug is still a bit annoying but manageable. As for the the slowtime, it only gets useful later on but then you don't find much of it. I would like to be able to use 3 level 1 slowtimes , instead of a lvl 3 slowtime when the situation calls for it. Otherwise the slowtime powerup depletes too quick at the higher levels. The sniper power, was disappointing to say the least, many times I almost died trying to get extra points by using the sniper. The shooting delay is too much to be useful, It is hard to see the zombies approaching at you while sniping so they can sneak past you. I kept finding myself sniping and tabbing again to check the situation and then trying to snipe once more, but this ordeal got me in a tough spot for the next 10 seconds or so because I fell behind.

3) Did you find a difficulty which suits you? Which was it?

I started medium, then graduated to hard. I think hard difficulty was pretty good, got to wave 16 or so, not too bad i guess.

4) What do you think about the choice of background music, both for the Main Menu and the game?

I like the music it gets you in the mood, maybe one or two more tracks to decrease the repetitiveness can be good if possible, but I liked it nonetheless. What annoyed be about the ingame track was , it ends and there is like a 30 second of silence until it starts again. You might want to cut the last part so that there is no part without music.

5) What was the thing that annoyed you the most about the game?

Couple things about the gameplay were kind of annoying. Firstly: The zombies that run to the crates and destroy them, I don't like this interaction, just when I am typing the zombie tosses into a crate, and there is a very underwhelming graphical crate destruction and I felt disappointed whenever this happened both for my precious powerup and for my time wasted trying to type that

Second one was: The zombie that takes a hit from the landmine , rifle or sniper sometimes gets back up, this happens when the zombie is really close to you already most of the time. Even though that zombie is usually slowed after the first hit, It takes some delay for a new word to appear on top of the zombie, and he reaches you while this happens. So if the zombie
is not dead of has too lives, I would like the zombie to get a second word immediately so I can finish it off.

6) What was the thing that you liked most about the game?

I liked the gameplay and the graphics, it is a fun game to kill some time and the the shooting of you machine gun and the landmine sound is quite satisfying

7) What would you change from the current state of the game? I would work on the sniper as I feel its useless, maybe put an indicator on the zombies in sniper mode and decrease the reload of the sniper bullet, it is supposed to be a powerup to help you clear hard waves not something you just use for extra points.

Maybe some sort of shield, I find it weird that my guy just stands there and shoots he should get himself some cover , some bunker of sorts so that he doesn't get one it KO'ed.

You should be able to mute sound and mute music seperately , and do this from inside the game. You shouldn't have to go outside your current gameplay, go to options to turn of sounds ( sound and music should be seperated) and go back to a new game.

A current status text in between waves about how you killed and combo count may be fun. But it will also slow down the game so I am not quite sure.

I don't like the fact that I lose my mouse while inside the game and I have to press Escape for my mouse to reappear, but this might be something to do with unity.

8) Will you play the game once it's officially released?

I don't see myself playing endless mode other then for testing purposes, I might give the arcade mode a go. The game is fun but it lacks a sense of achievement, you go through the waves but you don't feel like you have beaten anything , or unlocked anything. Some unlockables and achievement will increase the replayability.

The other reason to play this game more is to beat your friends scores, but kongregate is not really the platform to compete with your friend like facebook is.

I think I would play arcade and go for some badges if badges are added. I think that is good enough for a browser game that is not MMO.

9) Anything more you'd like to add?

You have done a great work and the concept is good, It is not my kind of game quite, because I like to play more chill games while I am playing browser games, but this game required you to be typing and doing something at all times. Thus some of my comments may be incorrect or irrelevant so take them with a grain of salt. I hope that I have not been overly critical and helpful. Ask if anything is not clear.

Nina Croitoru

Played the game on both easy and hard mode. Here are my notes:

1- IMO the game currently lacks a sense of overall progression. I'm not sure what you guys have in mind for it but currently your avatar is always static and waits endlessly in the same spot for the zombies to come to him. While it works for a pure score attack mode, in which you test how much you last without dying and what new record you can score it's not a kind of strategy that makes you want to come back to play. If you want to keep the character static, I suggest you would take a look at games like Plants vs Zombies (http://www.popcap.com/agegate.php) and look at how they make the whole "waiting in a spot" thing feel diverse, fun and engaging. If not look at Typing of the Dead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead). There your character is moving in an environment, which makes things more engaging, also zombies are jumping at you from above as well and jump from behind walls which keeps things interesting.

2- I found it hard to distinguish which kind of zombie is which at times. There seem to be 2 types of zombies that are standing and walking towards you but at different speeds. I found it hard to prioritize on the hard mode which one to kill first. Also, even if you manage to spot which one walks faster but if he's behind a slower zombie, sometimes the word you have to type gets obstructed by the other word.

3- Collectables seem like something extra there. I loved the fact that the crates blew up the zombies that smashed into them and I like the idea of collectables but I think it would have maybe added a whole new dimension to the game if you would have to type words to activate them as well. Then you would actually have to find the right moment to get them, balancing between collecting and killing monsters. Typing the word for a crate will put you in a vulnerable spot if there's a lot of zombies that need killing.

4- Overall I think this has great potential. The mechanic is fun and things are starting to look really good visually as well.

Hope you find these helpful! Keep up the great work!

dreasgrech / Typocalypse3D

[Beta] Playtesters' raw comments #123