Test Summary:

Control Scheme

Most players did not run into any issues with our control scheme when they were aware of the controls. However, some did take a while to discover the crouch or zoom buttons. We plan to rectify this by showing the control scheme through tutorial prompts and possibly UI elements.

Stealth Mechanics

During the testing session, there was little incentive for stealth as the level only contained one enemy to hide from in a small area of the map. That being said, players did still engage in stealth mechanics, crouching behind obstacles, searching for hidden paths and avoiding cameras. In future versions of our game, we hope to make it more necessary to use these skills to complete it.

Hacking Mechanics

During the test session, we had yet to make it so the player could hack things from range and instead had all hacking elements be done through terminals located around the map. We plan to make these mechanics more engaging by allowing the player to hack devices from range without finding a specific terminal.

Movement Mechanics

Engaging in platforming challenges was necessary for our test, and while testers enjoyed them, it was apparent that our movement mechanics were slightly unforgiving. We can improve this by trying slight tweaks to the level and altering the players' jump distance and length.

Level Design Coherency

While players understood how to approach each individual challenge of the level, most of the testers did not know where they would next need to go to progress through the level. As with our control scheme, we hope to make this more apparent through tutorial prompts and redesign the level to make it more linear and directional.

Art Style

Player feedback for the art style and aesthetic of the game was resoundingly positive, which is great to hear.

Most Interesting Game Aspect

Here we see a varied split in opinion between what aspect of our game was the most engaging. We need to improve our hacking mechanics if we want them to be at the same standard as the rest of our game.

Third Person vs First Person

The majority of players are comfortable with a third-person perspective.

Expressed Player Feedback

Bugs Encountered by Playtesters

Bug/Issue Priority

Low - Not a game-breaking bug/issue and should only be fixed if time is available

Medium - Good to fix before release or at least reduce to a low priority 

High - resolve the issue or create an alternative solution 

Critical - Can’t create a new solution and must fix before release

• In the room above the catwalk on the first level, the player got stuck in a hacking animation, and the doors wouldn't open for a while, but it eventually fixed itself.
• Low It's nothing major, just an occasional animation glitch while hacking and poltergeist floating chairs ;)
• High Frozen character while hacking. Dodge fixes it.
• Medium Third person camera moved around independently of my input, and a few buggy terminals and ledges to climb.
• Critical The Console within the bunker is bugged.
• Just the obvious ones you guys already know about
• High Console, you can also walk past the enemy
• Low some panels were picky to interact with, and one panel got me stuck in the "hacking" state where I could walk around while in the hacking anim
• Low Very laggy on my hardware - I am unsure why
• Low vaulting of the boxes moved me inside the box sometimes
• Low Sprinting would often not toggle correctly

Playtesters' Most Favorite Part

• Potential for lore.
• Atmosphere / art direction / animations * 5
• The Parkour * 3

Playtesters' Least Favorite Part

• Unintuitive Hacking - Hard to understand what is interactable and how to interact. * 2
• Laggy movement  / camera * 3
• The hacking took a long time. * 3
• Backtracking.
• Unforgiving jump (?)
  • Maybe the player thought the jump was too long?.

Playtester Suggestions

• Fleshed out stealth
  • Add one intuitive puzzle.
  • Better stealth indicators
  • More stealth segments.
• One player suggests that the game is super impressive.
• The controls need to be more responsive.
• Custom cosmetics!!

Gameplay Bugs and Issues Observed/Captured during Playtesting

A movement-related issue due to the low framerate was observed, which caused the jumping and the vaulting mechanic not to work as intended. Other playtesters had a reasonable frame rate of 30+ FPS, whereas one person had less than 15 FPS and couldn’t pass an obstacle required to progress. This would be high on the priority list as web gamers typically don’t have high system specifications.

A game-breaking glitch observed was the ‘Step Up’ mechanic causing a playtester to clip into an object and then fall through the ground as they tried to get out of it. This resulted in them having to restart the game, making this a high-priority but easily fixable issue. This may turn away players entirely if this happens to them at release.

Players didn’t know/understand the light detection and security camera systems due to no user interface feedback and little feedback from things happening in the game. This is a critical issue to fix as it's fundamental to the player's ability to play and understand the game. Sound feedback, such as an alert when the player is detected by a camera, a bar indicating the player’s illumination value, and a pop-up over the AI’s head indicating their state, would help give the player feedback to understand the situation and more engaged with the game.

The AI wasn’t predictable in its actions towards the player and sometimes had issues with firing at the player, which is a high-priority issue to fix. 

The AI sometimes would stare at the player and not do anything until the player moved within an area the AI could reach, which made some playtesters confused regarding the AI. AI was also walking through parts of the shelves which was unintentional and made it harder for players, which is a critical issue but quick to fix.

Overall Feedback

Playtesters generally found our game a positive experience, with the art direction and game theme being liked the most. Nearly all constructive criticism/issues were due to gameplay mechanics, which is great to see, as these features can be fixed and iterated upon. It was also helpful to see other people than our team members play the game as it gave us a new perspective on how players think and make decisions when they are new to the game.

Week 6:

Bill

Recently I've attempted to make changes to address some of the feedback we received during the testing session. In regards to the warehouse level, I've added some shortcuts to certain areas, as well as blocking other ones off to help make it more obvious to players where they should and should not go. I've also utilised the dialogue system implemented by Zac to introduce another character who can guide the character and provide tutorial information. 

Zac

After reviewing the testing data and feedback. I have implemented a few changes to address those issues, as well as added a few more features:

Issues with hacking consoles

• The trigger area is small and has an issue where you need to find a sweet spot to use it.
• Interact screen to small and hard to read

Fixes

• The trigger area of the consoles has been increased, so it is much easier to interact with the consoles.
• The text box that pops up has been edited to be larger and more readable.

Issues with doors:

• There were a few comments about the backtracking hacking on doors.

Fix

• I have removed 2 of the consoles for hacking the doors, and the doors, once hacked, will stay open. Unless the alarm sprung. then the doors will lock down

issues with movement:

• Jumping

Fix

• Tweaking the movement until we are happy with it.

Additions:

I have added a locked door that needs to be unlocked by getting the right keys:

Also working on an in-game UI but not ready to share yet.

Ed

After our testing session, the biggest issue in terms of gameplay was a lack of visual direction and feedback of what is happening in game.  First change was adding a visual above the AI's head to indicate when it is suspicious (with a ?) and when it is aware of your presence (with a !). This greatly helps with identifying when an AI is suspicious of you and makes it easier to make a choice to hide or hope that you get lucky and sprint by them. Another change was making the bullet fired by the AI's gun more visible which was achieved by giving it a trail and with some post processing bloom, which made it into pleasing but useful way to identify where the bullets are. Finally I added a chromatic aberration effect when the player gets hit with a bullet as a way to give them additional feedback with the health bar that they have been hit.

Along with this, I have been creating a UI element to display the current light level of the player that will change colour from white to yellow as the player goes into brighter areas. This will help players a lot with player in knowing where they can go without being seen. Movement also now modifies how visible you are and how close you can get to an AI. Rolling reduces your visibility so its great for getting past security cameras but is loud so AI will detect you if you do it too close. Crouching reduces visibility and is quieter, allowing the player to sneak by an AI in the dark without getting seen with the trade off of being slow. Sprinting dramatically increases visibility and sound levels which will make it easy for AI to detect you but allows you to cover a lot of ground when you just need to get out of an area.