This week, we conducted testing for a short prototype of Asphodel. Because Asphodel is a very ambitious project (nothing like it has ever been developed for the KIT207 unit), a lot of time has been spent on developing core systems used throughout the game, and as such, our playable prototype was quite short, and focused on showing off our core systems (movement, camera switching and shooting).

A short questionnaire was created using google forms and was provided to participants, who ran through the two available areas in our prototype. The form mainly focused on player's opinions about the character and enemy designs, as well as giving the player more open ended questions for them to provide feedback.
https://forms.gle/Uf8g3m4mfTe9uv4MA

On top of this, players were streaming gameplay of our prototype in a discord channel, with members of the team watching and taking notes about areas where players encountered difficulties or bugs, as well as engaging in a dialogue with playtesters. Footage was also recorded for later use, as shown in the screenshot above.

Coming out of testing, we have identified key areas where our prototype could be improved, listed below:

Initially some players had some confusion about our control scheme, with some players failing to use the camera switch mechanic, leading to them struggling to progress. There was also confusion about shooting weapons, which was exacerbated by the fact that our shooting sounds broke, and aiming animations weren't fully implemented. Clearer control instructions should be provided when the full prototype is released, and proper implementation of the aiming animations and shooting sound effects should help to provide the player with feedback so they know if they are successfully attacking or not. Mouse movement was also a bit confusing for some participants, this could potentially be fixed by having a marker displayed where a player clicks, showing them where the character will move too.

While our dialogue system was praised for it's design, some aspects of it received criticism.  Some players had trouble reading the text with the dark colors of the Dialogue User Interface, while others found that they were reading much faster than the text scrolled. In order to fix this, text has been given a subtle glow effect to make it stand out more against the background, and the scroll speed of the characters has been increased, so that faster readers aren't held back, while slower readers can catch up and continue when they are ready.

Our work in progress UI was also difficult for players to use, as the camera effects made the light gray text borderline unreadable. This UI will be completely overhauled and replaced with a new UI that features a similar design to the dialogue box system we already have in place. 

Sound was another aspect that  caused problems. While some people complimented the choice of sounds use, the general consensus between playtesters was that overall, audio was too loud. On top of this some players found it weird that was no background sounds or music. To help with audio being too loud,  an audio manager has been setup to ensure that volume can be lowered to an acceptable global level. Adding background ambience is something that is difficult, as none of the development team are professional sound designers, and it can be difficult to find good ambiance while respecting licensing agreements. 

Many testers also noted simple bugs that interrupted the flow of the game. Some doors didn't function properly, and  some items weren't able to be picked up. Most of these issues will be fixed by adjusting colliders, and ensuring that the relevant  scripts that have been developed have been properly setup on each object. 

For our project, we found testing to be very useful, as it gave a fresh, unbiased opinion on a game we have put a considerable amount of time and effort into. Although we knew we had some level of work left to make a satisfying prototype, receiving playtest feedback has helped to uncover things we missed, or failed to consider.