We received a lot of feedback after our play-test. Many liked our mechanics, how the bird enemy would fly in a wave formation and the basic controls of the player. They also enjoyed the graphics. One of the clear results from the play test was that the game was very short, and that the boss was very difficult when no instructions were given. Most of the critique of our game focused on the Aesthetics of the game, as in how the player would perceive the game. It was apparent that our game lacked an introductory level or tutorial for the players to learn the controls and the purpose of them, as such many where left with a feeling of confusion. We also lacked any backstory that would make the player understand the setting of the game so as to feel engaged. In a nutshell, the play test made us aware of how things that seemed intuitive to us who designed the game, was not clear at all to players who were not familiar with it.
In our Scrum planning which followed, we decided to prioritize the development of a tutorial, which would show the controls and provide the space for players to test each new ability before finally encountering the boss. We also made the anticipation for the boss’s attacks more clear by exaggerating the movements which were already put in place at the game test, were the boss would move backwards before charging towards the player.
The boss level was underwhelming. Mika suggested we look at some of the games from earlier students where the game environment would change as the player approaches to final boss, so as to foreshadow the mood of the battle. I agreed a lot with her sentiment and so I changed the parallax assets and the background to give the boss battle an eerie mood. I made the mountain tops more pointy and darker, I made the clouds black too look as if a thunderstorm was approaching and I changed the otherwise orange sky to it’s opposite color which is blue. This would give the boss battle the most contrast and the color also feels very cold.
Sasquatch 