Game Testing
Survey
I created this survey to see if the what the game so far (about 1 week before project deadline) people think is good and if they could recommend any ideas for imporving exsisting features or new ones i could add.
Question 1
I asked first what did people like about my game and gave them a multiple tick awnser so i can see which categorys have majority like over others. Knowing my strenghts in gave development are art and level design i assumed taht would be the most voted for as i feel at this point the game looks stunnning but the mechanics could do with soem work.
The results above of quetsion 1 show this as the artistic style, menu design, level design and open level exploration has the majority votes out of all the others which shows my artwork and level design is still very strong as it has been in older projects.
Though i was hoping the player mechanics and combat system would get at least a vote as i did work a lot harder to have a working and consistant mechanics for the game but above shows its might still needs work, which i will work on after this survey and collect more infomation.
Question 2
I asked as a follow up to question one why did people liked those categories and explain in detail. One response was that "These things are general things that i personally enjoy in games", i assume this person means the open level exploration and there is another response that supports that the open levels are a positive in my game. With that i feel i could add another open are which i had a plan of having a few open levels in my game, though i would need to think of ideas to give the player things to do in them or they would be boaring to explore. The open town level is large and has buildings you can enter/ interact with and enemies to fight behind buildings or edges of the town. if i had more time i would need to come up with ideas to keep the player exploring and discovering new things to do.
Some other repsonses mentioned the artstyle and how good it looks. This was a slight worry for me when picking my game as i had to get the style of my game right so it could make up for the colourless artstyle i was going for. I tried using patterns, gradients and unqie shapes to add depth and detail to my assets which i learned while looking at the books i researched.
If i had more time to work on the game i would try to add more detail to the areas i was not able to add as much detail to the first time around as some areas like the apartemnt and cafe have more detail than the others.
Question 3
I wanted to know if any exsisting elements of my game could be imporved from where it is currently. I got a lot of feedback from this question and there was a few responses i was aware of and some that i didnt think about at all. A response mentioned the combat was too easy which i agreeded with, i created the game so you can stun the enemies for a second which may be too long and you can continue to stun that same enemy ntil they loose all health, thus letting the player defeat groups of enemies without a single enemy touching the player. I would like to make the enemies more harder if could add more mechanics as what the AI have in terms of mechanics are very basic which is why you can fight them so easily and alwasy win. I wanted to add enemy blocking which would remove me needing to add a stun with every punch also i wanted the enemy to try to walk behind the player and strike the player while others attack from another side which would make combat more difficult when there are more enemies on the screen.
Another point was the player HUD was very hard to see which i knew before testing and i want to add a more visible background around the health bar. This would be a black and white boarder which regardless on the background you should be able to see the health bar.
I did the same with the player's money display and it works well having a simple background which contrast the text.
A few responses point out i needed a character model for the player. I knew i needed to create one at some point but i wanted to get the main mechanics done such as fighting, interaction, dialog and HUF design. This is also why i only had a simple tileset for the roads and buildings which all look the same which one response mentioned. If i had more time i would try to add more tilemaps of different buildigns to the player can tell certain buildings apart like the cafe and the gym buildings without having to read a sign or walking over every door. That was another thing someone mentioned which i didnt think about; what if there is a door you cant enter but the player doesnt know that? I feel i could add a notifycation which displays for other doors you can open but the textbox displays: "Door Locked" or something like that to tell the player they cannot access that building or area.
Lastly a map of the large areas is a good idea but i didn know how to create a mini-map system which would be great for players exploring large areas and i could of tied it to the mission system i wanted to add into my game as well as you can see objectives on this mini-map. Unfortunatly i had no idea how to program this into my game nor had the time to try and attempt adding it. If i had more time i would see if i could make a basic map which tracks the player as they move around the map and then add more complex mecahnics on top.
Question 4
I asked if the controls for the game was easy to pick up and play. From 1(Easy) to 5 (Difficult) to show how it was to discover the controls for the game, bare in mind there is no tutorial and the players had to expore by pressing buttons. I tried replication controls from other PC games which use the keyboard for all the controls and not using a mouse at all.
1/3 said it was kind of easy to learn the controls for my game without any prior knowlage of the controls for my game and 2/3 said that it was inbetween easy and hard to learn the controls which i feel is pretty good for a game which dont have any tutorial or shows how to play the game. Although i would like to still add a tutorial or a controls screen whcih shows the controls to the player so they can learn or possibly change certain keys of the game to fit one's playstyle, again if i ahd more time of course.
Question 5
From the question above, i asked if the player would like to see a tutorial before starting the game. 1/3 said yes and 2/3 said no. I feel i should have one anyway becasue i did ask a very small amout of people for this survey and a tutorial is always a handy part a game to let people introduce themselves to the game they could be spending minutes to hours playing, it feels like its a stardard thing to have in a game. A better questtion of me to ask is if i should have it skippable or placed at points along the duration of the game (new tutorial on a new mechanic when it is shown for the first time.) I could of got a better sense of still having a tutorial level and also knowing how to incorperate it into my game annoying as little of my player base as possible as forced tutorials do that a lot.
Question 6 + 7
I asked if the player's HUD (Heads up display) was reliable when playing the game and the awnseres back up what the replies from an earlier question was talking about. I put questions 6 and 7 together as they are tied together and repeat waht was mentoned in another question before. The responeses were mostly about healthbar visisbility and how it blends in with teh background. On response mentioned i should add colour but i feel that would ruin the black and white sytle i was going for. I could add a background like i mentioned before, possibly a black and white boarder so regardless on the background you should be able to see the health bar.
I could make the size of the health bar bigger to so it is also much more visible too but i didnt notice that in my experience but for others i would be something to test to see if i can get it perfect.
Question 8
Kind of a repeated question but i had to eb sure there was nothing else i could imporve and one response was perfect as it helped me thing of ideas to add to the figthing mechaincs for my game. I had the idea of improved mechanics which i took from the scott pilgrim game but i didnt think i had enough time to add. I wanted to add things like blocks which cancel or numbs the incomming damage from enemies and vice versa. Also that the delay on stuns should be reduced which i need to half or more to make them not freeze after taking one hit.