Playtest, Playtest, Playtest

Our Very First Playtesting Session

A few weeks ago we were able to get some preliminary playtesting done with a couple of early prototypes to test out our mechanics and perspective options before making some important final decisions. We had the players use the keyboard to defeat enemies, since our Makey Makey has still not arrived to be used with our physical controller.

(above) One of our prototypes, the button-combo style mode, where players must press the arrow keys above the enemies’ heads to defeat them when they are in range.

During this playtesting session, we aimed to find answers to following questions:

Which interaction is more rewarding?
Button-combination style – similar to Dance Dance Revolution
Or Direction-based style – similar to the original Disco Is Dead!
Does the combo mode work well?
Which perspective works best?

The results led us to the following conclusions:

There was a strong preference to input indicators over enemy heads. The directional mode was not as clear because players were unsure how to interact with the enemies.
Allow difficulty to ramp up or have different settings – more hits in harder modes.
Reaction times need balancing.
Combo mode needs to be juicier when it is available for activation – many players didn’t even notice the option to activate it.
Reconsider advantages of combo mode
Few players saw the advantage to activating this mode if it only seemed to speed up the enemies.
Boring to watch. We want this game to draw in crowds at game showcases and our prototypes weren’t very engaging to an audience. Needs more juiciness, and of course, art! Nobody likes cubes.

Following this feedback, our team has begun development on the first build of our game!

Playtesting @ GameDevDrinks

This week we had the honor of showing an early build of our game at GameDevDrinks‘ Demo Night at the Pheasant Plucker in Hamilton. We got tons of great feedback from developers and designers! We had two stations set up each equipped with Xbox controllers to accommodate two players at a time.

There’s me on the right furiously taking notes while I observe our playtesters ;)

We implemented some early art assets and UI into the first build to better convey the theme of our game to players. Additionally, we were trying out various types of combo modes, as well as testing some new speed mechanics and enemy types.

Overall, our game received great reception from players, most people loved the originality of the disco theme combined with zombies.

The concept of a slappable head controller excited everyone that we mentioned it to, one player even saying “Ohhh that’d actually be really cool! That’d be awesome! I can’t think of a game that’s done that before.” This kind of positive feedback is exactly the encouragement we need to get our controller built when our Makey Makey arrives.
Music is so important! Since we were in a fairly noisy environment, most players couldn’t hear the music playing in our game. Many players asked us if we were going to have an awesome soundtrack to fit in with our disco game. We’re looking into licensing some of Fhernando‘s tracks.
UI is unclear. Players still weren’t noticing the combo mode, even with the updated UI, since players’ attention is focused on the lower half of the screen where enemies are spawning. Our UI designer is reworking the UI to accomodate this.
Enemy types are unclear. We introduced two new enemies in this build – the garbage can shield zombie and a zombie that switches between lanes. When initially introduced to these zombies, most players were not sure how to defeat them. Enemy types are definitely something we’ll have to teach the player in the tutorial.
Controls were unclear. We had the players using the joystick on the Xbox Controllers to defeat enemies. Some players wished to use the D-pad for faster reaction times – which is something we hadn’t considered implementing in this build. Either way, this won’t be as much of an issue when we finally develop our slappable head controller.
Push our aesthetics further. Many players loved our disco theme, and wanted us to push this over the top, with brighter colors and more glittery, funky goodness.
Level variety is a must! Many players enjoyed the level we had to show, but didn’t want to play again if it was just the same level.
Drawing in curious eyes. Our game had several people standing and observing gameplay – which is encouraging to see even with an early build! We want our game to draw in crowds so this was great to see even with minimal art and juiciness.