Week 8 Feedback

Gameplay

• • How to make the death mechanic more understandable?

    • Grunt sound followed by mystical wind

  • How is the player going to discover how to control the boomerang?

    • Text/dialogue

    • Open sandbox level to play around and experiment

  • Make the boomerang faster and more responsive

  • Add a jetstream to the boomerang

  • Add sound effects and animations to the boomerang

  • Add a transition for death

    • Lights going out, then coming back on

    • Fading vignette

  • Exiting the temple and seeing an open environment was really cool

  • Make the boomerang float and add particles when it’s waiting to be collected, like The Legend of Zelda

  • Replace spheres with empty door frames

  • Make hieroglyphs to act as an instruction manual

Week 7 Feedback

Presentations

• • Sell presentation should be a slice of the future

    • Where the game will go if chosen for next term

    • Where is it in pre-production, full production, and beyond

  • Include how long a playthrough is

  • Have examples of how death can be used

    • Survey the environment, but lose time in the process

    • Death is necessary to complete a puzzle

Gameplay

• • Possible puzzle could be using the boomerang to knock a spike down and fall on the player

• Model in centimeters, not inches

• Story may not seem super clear, as in Morgan’s past and their current role

• Future endeavors could be possible enemies or sections that remove the boomerang

• Replace blue spheres with portal doors

• Have the same textures for rifts

• Outer Wilds as inspiration for the death mechanic

• Possible timer option could be the desaturation of the screen, like in Uncharted

• Possible include resource management, like a limited amount of time to die or throw the boomerang

Week 6 Feedback

Presentations

• • Include demo/trailer in sell presentations

  • Include controls of boomerang tracking within technical aspects

  • Initial room is claustrophobic

  • Increase the spirit light vibrancy/strength as time runs out

  • Clarify destabilization?

  • Better showcase what the game could be

    • Where could the game go? What could the game become?

    • What is the vision for the game?

  • There’s a disconnect between the conceptualized environment and the in-game environment

  • Have more animations and transitions to prevent disorientation

  • “A journey through life and death and back”

    • Emphasize the death mechanic

  • Include a boomerang graphic on the title screen

    • Emphasize the boomerang

  • Start with the quietus definition, then the summary

  • Emphasize the mechanics/hooks in the summary

  • Include the respective artwork in the summary

  • Change the boomerang logo

    • Less plane-like, change the jetstreams to be rotational

  • Better organize the slide info and talking points

  • Mention the spirit world and Morgan in the summary

  • Put more focus on the player and their experience as if they were playing

  • Really liked the hooks introduction title card

  • A slide to better connect the story and gameplay

  • Making the description of the boomerang less mechanical/technical and more descriptive

    • “The boomerang tracks the crosshair” -> “The boomerang is steerable”

  • YOU WANT TO DIE

    • Advocate the purpose of death

    • How to strategize death and how it differs from other games

  • “What You Do” slide needs gameplay examples to better explain

  • More art to better reflect the current environments

  • Less small text on conceptualized level design

  • Conceptualized level design isn’t good for explaining level progression

  • Story isn’t clearly related to gameplay

    • Integrate better with the progression of the presentation

  • Less segregated slides

    • Stop separating the slides by individual aspects and organize them with more of a narrative

  • Instead of a general audience, have an ESRB rating with clarifying details

    • E10+ - death as main gameplay, challenging puzzles

  • Go more in-depth how our game is similar to other games, then clarify how ours is unique

Gameplay

• • STOP GREYBOXING

  • Present the demo as a new player experience

    • Don’t make it like a walkthrough, make it like a let’s play

  • Inspiration for the time limit: Outer Wilds, LOZ: Majora’s Mask, Pathologic 2

    • A siren’s call; impending doom

  • No third puzzle, instead, have variations of existing puzzles

    • Demonstrate the boomerang tracking

  • List different kinds of challenges

    • Curving the boomerang around obstacles

    • Finding a way to die

    • Throwing the boomerang while moving

    • Solving sequential puzzles

    • Removing assets to increase difficulty

Week 5 Feedback

Gameplay

• • Stop greyboxing and add textures

  • Use prefabs to make implementation better

  • Make death more obvious

    • E.g., atmospheric color change, UI change, etc.

  • Relocate the player upon death so that there isn’t a chance they might get stuck

    • Teleport in front of the portal? A specific set location?

  • Possibly include something that increases and decreases destabilization time limit?

  • Challenge in Elsend that has to be solved within the mortal land

  • Improve the boulder puzzle before implementing more puzzles

  • Include labels/directions to explain to the player what the controls

  • How to change the level to accommodate the boomerang tracking?

  • Have different iterations of the same puzzle for playtesting to determine which version is more fun

  • Some kind of wind puzzle that affects the boomerang’s path?

  • Buttons with different symbols to represent different ways to activate

    • E.g., handprint, boomerang

Presentations

• Color code roles/tasks/completion on scrum

• Include survey results on scrum

Week 4 Feedback

Gameplay

• • Add an indicator for distance boomerang is thrown

  • More self-reflection (Where are we? Is our game still fun?)

  • Keep in mind that first-person platformers are difficult to maintain a balance

  • Programming for persistent states and respawn in the right area

  • Test load time between mortal world and spirit realm

  • Builds

    • WebGL or Downloadable Win/Mac builds

  • Higher FOV

  • Maybe on-screen directions, guide, manual, tutorial, etc.?

  • Possibly use textures similar to oil spills?

  • Implement rock puzzle

Week 3 Feedback

Presentations

• • Include a tagline on the title slide

    • Catch the audience’s attention immediately

  • Include definition of the title?

  • Try to put gameplay slides before story stuff

    • Make sure the hook is one of the first slides

  • Mention how gameplay relates to story (and vice versa)

  • Give boomerang its own slide

    • Boomerang is metaphorical for the gameplay

  • Why is the boomerang different?

    • Curved trajectory allows it to go around obstacles, unlike grappling hooks

  • Give non-regressive death its own slide

  • More specific target audience

    • What does our target audience normally play?

  • More specific goals for scrum

    • Include names with tasks

  • DO NOT BE VAGUE

  • Explain every menial thing

    • Make sure at least some of things you say are on the slides; don’t rely solely on your verbal descriptions to explain everything

Spirit World

• • Define what’s in the spirit realm

    • How to leave Elsend? Why is Elsend needed/fun?

  • Penalty for going to Elsend?

    • Being teleported further away with the nearest portal? (and vice versa)

  • Are there limitations in Elsend?

    • Time-sensitive access points, etc.

  • Is the spirit world mirroring the real world?

    • Saves time on level design and could possibly make more sense to the player

    • Perspective changes in Elsend?

Gameplay

• • Multiple ways to solve puzzles

  • How is our game supporting different playstyles?

  • Main mechanic is death

  • Beware of difficulty platforming in the first-person

    • Maybe use the boomerang to better sell first-person platforming

  • How to balance accidents and dying on purpose?

  • Cement boomerang-spirit world interactions

  • Discuss spirit world penalties

    • Go more in-depth about the spirit world in general

  • Range of boomerang can be increased? Use of the boomerang is limited?

Art

• • Gif was very useful (Go more in depth on the spirit world)