chrisandersenqut

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Solar Defender Playtesting

For our playtesting we tested 5 subjects all with somewhat similar demographics and cunducted a questionnaire, gameplay testing and survey. During the playtesting we made notes and found that there were some issues we had not experienced previously and/or didnt think about earlier in production. One such example is that the asteroids could spawn directly infront of the ship almost immediately destroying a friendly ship making the player struggle to complete the game. There was also a lack of UI that surprisingly only one user commented on however we ranked that as a severe issue as you could not replay that game unless you restart the entire application. During the playtesting process many users got confused about why the friendly ships werent being destroyed however quickly came to realise that the ships were meant to be defended.

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Solar Defender Development

Over the past few weeks, I have continued work on the solar defender game implementing most of the sought out and planned features. The power ups were implemented with some minor bugs that prevented them from being reused. This was simply due to a syntax error in the code where I overlooked a timere that did not have "" surrounding it. The rapid fire power up and the piercing shot power up worked nicely however ran into some aesthetic issues when trying to get them to work together and ended up moving on to the next power up. The extra life power up worked very easily and was implemented without any troubles. One other main aspect that was implemented was the uranium asteroids, these asteroids' function was slightly changed and now only destroyed all of the friendly ships on the game screen. The uranium asteroids orignally were supossed to contaminate the following few asteroids and turn them into uranium asteroids aswell to form a sort of chain reaction however this turned out to be difficult to implement and made the game difficult to play therfore it was changed. The enemy AI were a tough aspect to implement and eventually was postponed till after the firs playtesting rounds as there was not a playable version of the game that included the enemy AI at that point. Minor adjustments were made to the speed of asteroids and bullets and also to their spawning rates.

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Solar Defender Prototype

After some work and planning of the prototype and playtest, I specifically focused on improving and adding some feature into the game by implementing power ups. the primary power up is a rapid fire power up which did cause an issue in the game. The issue was that it would only work once and any other power ups would not be usable. Knowing that the fix would be something simple I still sent that version through to my team and together noticed that there was an issue with one of the timers not resetting after it is activated. 

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Prototyping and Playtesting Assessment

We have formed groups, and selected our game which will be Solar Defender the game that I previously prototyped. My posting schedule has gone of track however we are delegating our tasks and forming a project management Gantt chart to keep our schedule on track.  

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Escape Artist Play-Testing

Users played Escape Artist and showed some mixed feedback, at the time of play-testing the game had very little work done to it and was not by any means a complete prototype. The players noted that there was a lack of content from what they read in the elevator pitch and could be improved. These features were unable to be added due to heavy work load and assessments in other courses. Players noted that the game had potential however was overall lacking in interesting selling points and stated that they would be interested in playing the final product. 

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Elevator Pitch #3

Game Title: Escape Artist

Escape Artist is a 2D driving game in which the player must dodge traffic and escape a trailing police helicopter. The player must avoid hitting traffic as every time they do the police helicopter moves closer to the player. the player must avoid getting too much damage or they will be destroyed.

The game is played by using the arrow keys to move forward, back, left and right.

Selling Points

1.       Police helicopter to evade

2.       Vehicle damage

3.       Power ups to aid player with escape

Contact Info

Name: Chris Andersen

Student #: n10605843

[chrisandersenqut]

Solar Defender Play-Testing

Overall feedback was positive, players enjoyed the sound and found the game playable. Some key features were missing such as an end game, and some parts of the main selling points. The players particularly noted the sounds and the thought that the game was well balanced when it came to difficulty. One player criticised the repetitive nature of the game as some key features had not yet been added which made the game play somewhat dull compared to what an end product would otherwise be.

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Tried adding "Civilian" or friendly ships that the player must defend to the regular asteroid style game. Having them spawn and move in random places and directions proved to be too inconsistent and affecfted the playability of the game. I changed the player to spawn at the base of the play area and the friendly ships to move accross the screen from either side. this improved the playability of the game as the player no longer had to do full 360s to defend them.

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Elevator Pitch #2

Game Title: Solar Defender

Solar defender is a game in which the player has to defend passing civilians from asteroids and alien ships. The player can shoot the asteroids and enemy ships to destroy them however must avoid shooting the civilian ships. Enemy ships are posed as more challenging as they attempt to shoot the civilian ships. Special uranium asteroids pose a greater threat as well, as they blow up and cause collateral damage.

The game is played by moving the mouse in the direction the ship should point and pressing the left mouse button to fire the cannon.

Selling Points

1.       Friendly/Civilian ships that must not be attacked or destroyed by asteroids

2.       Enemy alien ships that shoot back

3.       Uranium Asteroid type that will blow up and cause the next few asteroids to become uranium asteroids as well if shot

Contact Info

Name: Chris Andersen

Student #: n10605843

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Gumper Play-testing

Feedback was positive as there was a clear objective and the game included obstacles and challenges to over come. Both users did mention that in regards to the elevator pitch the game had not achieved its original goals which were to have multiple playable characters, and unique abilities. Due to time constraints these features were not able to be implemented into the game. The users recognised the base concept of the game and pointed out that the game play mechanics were well set out however did point out some grey areas for example the player not re-spawning after they fall off the platform. players also pointed out the lack of an interactive UI. These things were difficult to accomplish in the time frame however the prototype and concept of the game was well represented.

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Elevator Pitch

Elevator Pitch – Chris Andersen

Game Title: Gumper

Gumper is a 2D platformer style game that has the player progress through levels by destroying enemies, overcoming obstacles, and collecting coins. The player can select different characters with unique abilities to destroy different enemies, simple enemies however can be destroyed by being jumped on. The player must move through levels by running and jumping over objects without falling. Coins can be collected by players and are kept as a score and used as an indication of how well the player completed the level. Levels consist of a start point, respawn checkpoints and an end point.

The game is played using the arrows on the keyboard and the space bar to jump, the abilities will be activated with other buttons. Left arrow – move left, right arrow – move right, space bar – jump, up arrow, power up.

Selling Points:

1.       The game has multiple enemy types for the player to defeat.

2.       There are different characters for the player to choose between each with a unique ability.

3.       Various obstacles and a variety of objects for the player to overcome.

Contact info:

Name: Chris Andersen

Student #: n10605843