Hypothesize => Playtests => Results

Hypothesis

Prior to the recent session of playtest, I have been considering between a complex sand-box/ easter-egg level design and straight-forward level design. 

1. A sand box level would encourage the player to explore and play through the entire map, allowing players time to master the controls and navigate the challenging environment from a skewed perspective.

2.  A straight-forward level design would require the player to find the best route that they think can get themselves to the indicated goal. 

The assumption is that the general player would most likely not have the time nor patience to explore a level, especially given the playtest environment of RMIT University. This environment may prevent players from spending too much time with a game as compared to the comfort of their bedroom, because they 1) Has their own playtests to conduct 2) Pressure to perform in a public environment, which for some may mean less tolerable to mistakes. However, assumption 1 can't be completely disregarded, although as of now, for the reasons mentioned above we will focus on designing a straight-forward level. That said, the sand box level would be fairly reasonable given that the players are willing to spend more of their time getting used to the controls - allowing them to ease into the game and subconsciously navigate the area without having to think as much or at all. 

Playtest + Discussion

Opinions from playtesters from both versions of the level revealed that the community prefers a sand box level design. Our concern that the players wouldn't care to explore were non-existent as most playtesters said they would want to spend more time on exploring the map and mastering the mechanics, instead of attempting the same puzzle, even just twice - it make use of the assets, mechanics and demonstrate it throughout the world. Likewise, it would encourage the players to be creative when go looking for cues. Although this may be the bias coming from a colleague game design students, who feels may feel guilty for not using everything that has already been created; or simply poor puzzle design that doesn't encompasses the entire environment which ultimately led to the thinking that our 1 straight forward puzzle isn't making good use of the assets.

Result

That said, the previous assumption may be applicable to bigger and more challenging puzzles, but perhaps our game is really just that small, easy and only slightly challenging with the addition of wacky controls, which doesn't interfere with the player ease. Overall, the sandbox design seemed more preferred between the two.

Extra Findings

During the playtest, one of the playtester brought up a very constructive feedback regarding the eyeball movement. Aaron said: "Currently, [the] eyeballs are like cars that have rockets strapped behind them... it makes them very hard to control." This is seemingly true, as we observe later playtests, playtesters despite knowing where they are going using the viewport from the other eye would still roll, stop to adjust then roll again. Although it hasn't been elaborated by many, seemed to be a common occurrence and does receive some sighs from playtesters. Aaron suggested that we should make the movement of the eyeball like that of a hamster ball, and it should allow the eyeball to move in multiply direction instead of an omni-directional trigger press.

Upon further discussion, we decided to take on the advice and going to make an iteration of the movement, where the situated eye will be the third-person camera of the rolling eye, which enables the player to control the rolling eye from the view-able viewport. This will hopefully prevent the players from constantly having to readjust, because they can't tell where they are going. However, just as I am typing this devlog, I think by keeping the same movement but adding an arrow on the rolling eye to indicate its direction would do the same as the third-person camera suggestion; however, that would make the UI less clean. For our next iteration, we are going to test out these options.