So time and time again I'm told by my play-testers that the random enemies are too powerful. And they're right, the enemy difficulty in the game is absurd. I had one play-tester seriously pitch a fit about being killed by a super fire wizard when he was only one level below the current floor level and he had three potions.
Well first of all, the fire wizards are pretty broken over all. Each fire particle in their spell deals as much damage as a single ice spell.
Also, my game has a horrible fault that no one has brought up (or noticed). When you use a potion there is no window of invulnerability. This really sucks. It is why that play-tester died so quickly.
What I'm saying is this play-tester is not wrong. Given more time I would have decreased general enemy difficulty, added more floors to the cave, added more furniture, put in a window of invulnerability.
But at this point I was testing the sounds in my game, because that is last major change I was going to make. One week until gold and I was firmly against feature creeping. Turns out the play-tester really liked the music, especially the track played in the stores.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
3 Sessions, 3 Changes
Session #1
After I had the major components of the game (combat and furniture) I sat the game in front of some random folks and asked them what kind of furniture they wanted. I got a lot of answers, the tops ones being:
I don't know,
Something cool looking,
A chair or something.
Okay, so the people don't know what they want. Over the course of the next week I made a piece of furniture everyday. When I sat down with play-testers again they liked every single piece (the piggy bank especially). It didn't seem to matter to them what the furniture was, or what it did, just that it was there.
Change #1
Added Lots of furniture, stopped play-testing for content, resumed play-testing for combat feel and bug issues.
Session #2
This time I sat down with Xen with a later version of the game to see how he felt it was going. Turns out he hated the combat, still. He still wanted to have mouse controls and he also wanted a grappling hook, and environmental additions to combat, and lots of other stuff.
Change #2
I imagined I would do all this for about half an hour, then I realized I was feature creeping. The one change I did make was the mouse controls. It did significantly increase the fun-factor for combat, but made the arrows look weird. Later I changed them to shurikens.
Session #3
For my last play-testing session before The Career Fair I wasn't expecting a whole lot (I was super focused on the job hunt) but Moxie and BadTV pointed out one very important aspect of my game I had neglected: My game had no sound or music. Well crap.
Change #3
Obviously something had to be done! After much adventure (which I might go into later) I found the right music for my game, as well as some sound effects.
After I had the major components of the game (combat and furniture) I sat the game in front of some random folks and asked them what kind of furniture they wanted. I got a lot of answers, the tops ones being:
I don't know,
Something cool looking,
A chair or something.
Okay, so the people don't know what they want. Over the course of the next week I made a piece of furniture everyday. When I sat down with play-testers again they liked every single piece (the piggy bank especially). It didn't seem to matter to them what the furniture was, or what it did, just that it was there.
Change #1
Added Lots of furniture, stopped play-testing for content, resumed play-testing for combat feel and bug issues.
Session #2
This time I sat down with Xen with a later version of the game to see how he felt it was going. Turns out he hated the combat, still. He still wanted to have mouse controls and he also wanted a grappling hook, and environmental additions to combat, and lots of other stuff.
Change #2
I imagined I would do all this for about half an hour, then I realized I was feature creeping. The one change I did make was the mouse controls. It did significantly increase the fun-factor for combat, but made the arrows look weird. Later I changed them to shurikens.
Session #3
For my last play-testing session before The Career Fair I wasn't expecting a whole lot (I was super focused on the job hunt) but Moxie and BadTV pointed out one very important aspect of my game I had neglected: My game had no sound or music. Well crap.
Change #3
Obviously something had to be done! After much adventure (which I might go into later) I found the right music for my game, as well as some sound effects.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Exploration vs. Achievement
Being a single-player game Wizards Love Caves have two major player types: Exploration types and Achievement types.
Unfortunately my primary testing audience (Xen, BadTV, Bubbles, and Moxie) are all Achievement types, so my game has been more geared towards this. You can tell based on the type of game WLC is. You try to get as deep in the cave as possible, and collect all of the furniture.
After talking about this with BadTV and some self-proclaimed Exploration type players I came to realize the various aspects of the game I implemented to please my Achievement audience was actually also pleasing to an Exploration audience.
One of major aspects of the game discussed:
Clearing floors to get chests:
One of the more recent (and still slightly broken) mechanics of the game is that when you clear a floor of the cave the floor number turns gold and a chest appears. Every chest contains a different item that powers up the player and every chest can only be opened once. Achievement players want to open every chest. Exploration players want to find out what different items there are.
Unfortunately my primary testing audience (Xen, BadTV, Bubbles, and Moxie) are all Achievement types, so my game has been more geared towards this. You can tell based on the type of game WLC is. You try to get as deep in the cave as possible, and collect all of the furniture.
After talking about this with BadTV and some self-proclaimed Exploration type players I came to realize the various aspects of the game I implemented to please my Achievement audience was actually also pleasing to an Exploration audience.
One of major aspects of the game discussed:
Clearing floors to get chests:
One of the more recent (and still slightly broken) mechanics of the game is that when you clear a floor of the cave the floor number turns gold and a chest appears. Every chest contains a different item that powers up the player and every chest can only be opened once. Achievement players want to open every chest. Exploration players want to find out what different items there are.
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