Micro machines - Creation

During the creation of my Micro Machines game I used BeepBox to create the soundtracks and also I made a few of the Sound effects that are played in the game, using both BeepBox and Foley sound design. I also organised my code by using groups for each action that the code is used for, this made it easier to amend my code and keep track of all of the lines of code. Moving forward I will adopt this organisation as it made my life so much easier and also streamlined the programming process. 

Playtest session - Micro machines

We carried out a play testing session where I received three playtest feedback forms, these forms contained some relevant and helpful information that will help me to improve this Micro Machines game further. During this session, I play tested three peoples recreations of Micro Machines and I found this to be very useful in gathering ideas on areas where they need to improve and how I can use some ideas and implement them into my game to improve it further. After play testing three games, I was able to find some new mechanics that I could potentially use in my game for example, one game had a random choice AI path that changes every lap so the lap positions of the AI cars is different, this just makes the game more exciting and I will definitely add this to my game. Also, one game had a player position counter that functioned very well, so I will need to add this alongside my existing lap counter and lap stopwatch. 

MInecraft raiders 

Creation

During the creation of my Minecraft Raiders game I created all my sound effects and soundtracks using either Beep Box or the Foley sound design method. I also used Piskel to create my animations and all of the pixel art that is present in the game, this was a great idea as I find Piskel to be a better program than the Construct 3 pixel art tool, this allowed for more detailed pixel art.

Sound Effects and Soundtracks

As the brief was very open on what sound effects we could use, I re-used and re-purposed some of my previously used sound effects and implemented these into the game.

Pixel Art

Minecraft Raiders Feedback Reflection:

During the final steps of the Space Invaders project I participated in a playtest session with the rest of the class, in this session four classmates played my Minecraft Raiders game and filled out feedback on a Notepad text file. The feedback was originally going to be put into a QA Feedback form, but the internet across the college was down so this was not accessible at the time, however I was still able to receive feedback in the form of an on-desktop Notepad app. This feedback session was very helpful in helping me to improve my game based on the feedback that I gathered. Furthermore, I was able to play an array of classmates' games and this was helpful to gather ideas and mechanics from other games that I could apply to my games. The feedback from this session included minimal improvements needed and did not go too far into detail, but all feedback is helpful feedback so I reviewed this and plan to make changes where appropriate.

Kevin Rodrigues Feedback:

-Any bugs, if so, what are they?

Not any that I could see

-Does the game have sound

Nope

-Can you complete the game

I think? Nothing happens after everyone dies

-Rate difficulty

3

-Rate fun

5

- Areas for improvement

Maybe make it more difficult?

This feedback by Kevin was not very helpful, as it did not go into detail about what needed improving or not. This feedback does not give enough information to make it relevant or in any way helpful to the improvement of my game. In addition to this, I can interpret that the game functioned as expected, but they needed it to be more difficult, I do not agree with this as the game scales in difficulty and the second level is extremely difficult to complete so I do not know why it needs to be more difficult as no other play testers found this an issue. The game does include sound and it clearly states on the main menu that audio can be adjusted in the settings page, two soundtracks are present as well as sound effects for the player, AI, Barriers, game completion and projectile fire. So I do not know why the play tester wrote “No Audio”. Overall this feedback was not very helpful and I do not intend to adjust my game based on this feedback. 

The audio implementation in the game can be found below in the three pictures and also in the Playtest version of the game at the top of this section. 

Jack's Feedback:

-Any bugs, if so, what are they?

When you die, you can't fire projectiles, which means you basically have to dodge enemy projectiles which makes the

game unfair to the player as you feel defenceless 

-Does the game have sound

yes the game does have sound which mimics the Minecraft background music.

-Can you complete the game

You can complete the game i believe as i wasn't able to due to the bug from earlier.

-Rate difficulty

7

-Rate fun

8

-Areas for improvement

fix the bugs which will make the game more enjoyable 

Jack's feedback was more helpful than that of the previous play tester because they went into detail about what bugs were present in the game and explained the effect on players very well and in detail. Jack found the game to be overall enjoyable and fun, but did encounter a bug that would not allow them to fire a projectile when they die. I have not personally encountered this bug and after replaying the game multiple times this has not come up, also, if the player has died then they should not be able to fire projectiles anyway so this is not a bug and is an intended feature, just like the original Space Invaders when the player would die they would not be able to fire lasers. Overall, I found Jack's feedback to be relevant, but I will not be making amendments to the game based on the bug feedback as this was not a bug in the first place.

Mal’s Feedback:

-Any Bugs?

After Game Over, if the bullet is mid-fire, it cannot fire when the game restarts.

-Does the game have sounds?

Yes, they are present

-Can I complete the game?

I can, and it returns the player to the menu.

-Difficulty: 7/10

-Fun: 6/10

-Areas for Improvement: 

Increase the bullet speed

Mal’s Feedback was helpful in allowing me to see that there was a bug in the code that froze the players projectile when the game restarted, this in fact was a bug and after vigorous testing I found it only happens under certain conditions and it is based on Booleans not be toggled off when they needed to be. I will certainly look into this and amend the code based on this bug feedback so the game functions as intended as the gameplay is the utmost important element to a game. Mal also pointed out another improvement that would increase the fun of the game, this was in fact to increase the speed of the players projectiles. I agree with Mal on this point and will definitely adjust the speed of the projectiles so they are faster and feel more responsive. Overall, Mal’s feedback was detailed and highlighted two key areas for improvements and this is what I wanted from this session, relevant feedback.  

Casey’s Feedback:

-Any bugs, if so where?

not found any yet

-Does the game have sounds?

yes, there is a settings page to mute/unmute and fiddle about with the volume

-Can you complete the game?

-Rate difficulty 1-10

the pace in the games speed is good and the enemies have a gap between them which makes the hard to hit

4

-Rate Fun 1-10

7

-Areas for improvement

I would like more control over the player movement as it only moves in increments to the left or right. This makes enemies hard to hit as I cannot move directly where I want to.

there is a lack of different projectiles doing different things. adding differences would make the enemies more unique to each.

-Does it fit the theme?

I love this Minecraft theme and it is done very well. This feels like a solid game and replicates the space invaders feel well.

The enemies are well drawn as well as the smooth animations

-Elements I would like to steal

I like the lives system

Casey’s feedback was by far the most helpful and detailed feedback I received, this was extremely helpful as all of the feedback was relevant and the improvements mentioned were also relevant and explained clearly. Casey found no bugs during her playtest, this is great as I worked hard on the code to the game and it went through several iterations and testing phases so it would function as intended without any impurities. Casey also commented that the audio was present and that a main menu / settings page was present allowing her to adjust volumes of the sound effects and soundtracks. She also said that the pace of the game was good and the difficulty of the levels were present through the hitbox sizes allowing projectiles to miss the enemies. In terms of improvements, Casey had a few ideas that would elevate the gameplay experience, for example she said that more control over the player e.g. smaller movements would be better than the large movements that the player takes at the moment, as you can line up the player perfectly with the enemies. I will look at changing the movement, but I feel this adds to the difficulty of the levels. Also, Casey said that there was a lack of projectile variety in terms of effects, she suggested adding unique effects from each projectile type to give the enemies more character. I totally agree with this point and I will put in different effects for each projectile e.g. the Web can slow down the players movement. Overall, Casey went into great detail explaining her feedback and I will add all of the improvements mentioned by Casey, because I believe they will help improve the game. In addition to the improvements I will make based on feedback, I will add a randomly generated power-up system that will add effects to the player these can either have negative or positive effects to the player. 

MInecraft raiders 

final version

The final improved game can be found below and at this link: https://postfeedbackfinalminecraftraiders.netlify.app/