DECO2300 Dark Horse Evaluation feedback analysis

During my feedback session for my Dark Horse prototype I conducted 3 surveys on 6 individuals in total. I asked a few questions regarding the multiple features in my game, these questions are listed below.

1. Did the loss of movement make you choose your moves more carefully
2. How could I better have implemented the obstructer cannon
3. Do you prefer horizontal only movement, or would you prefer there to be diagonal movement as well

Which each pair of testers, I ensured they played at least one game where the movement loss on life loss was disabled and one game when it was active. Unfortunately I noticed that many users experienced severe difficulty in utilizing their respective item cannons. Due to the nature of my code, because the power bars are controlled by key-down and hold event listeners, when a player would begin powering up their cannon by holding down a key, it would cease powering up the moment another player pressed down any other key.

5/6 users stated that the loss of movement resulted in them playing the game more carefully. This was apparent as users began taking more care with their turns on their second game with the rule being enforced. The one user that did not take care in the game appeared to show little interest in it from the beginning, though I do hope this was not due to my game being inherently boring.

A wide variety of answers were supplied regarding the implementation of my obstructer cannon and how it could better be used. A few users pointed out the need for an aiming reticle of some kind and greater freedom to aim in a variety of angles. One user suggested giving the items more impact and power as to encourage users to utilize them more, one even suggested sound prompts to indicate players had collected an item. 2 users suggested changing my game into a turn based game, these users had not tested previous prototypes, but their feedback was relevant, giving players a chance to carefully aim their obstructer at the end of their turn would encourage their use greatly.

Lastly, users were overwhelmingly in favour of horizontal only movement, it allowed them to traverse the minefield quicker as they would have less 'variables' to take into account as they weighed up which tile to move onto.

I believe this prototype to be a success in respect to players delivering their moves with more care and consideration. Though I do feel that my failure to implement the obstructer cannons in an interactive and functional manner make this a very minor success indeed. I do feel in a future iteration of this prototype, I should firstly go back to a turn based system, but retain the keyboard movement setup and secondly flesh out the obstructer cannon with full 360 degree rotational aiming, a reticle and perhaps more powerups such as bonus lives.

DECO2300 Dark Horse Prototype

I have recently created the 'Dark Horse' prototype for Minestructor. This third iteration of my design idea completely reworked the ideas that It had originally been based off.

Whilst not a point of criticism, one crying result of players competing against one another whilst playing my game was a phenomenon I would like to call 'rushing'. A player 'rushes' when they indiscriminately race to the end of the mine field, disregarding the mine proximity prompts and gambling on there being less than three mines in the line directly in front of them. The use of obstructers had previously mitigated this phenomenon, however, if players ran out or forgot to use them, the winner of the match would almost always be the player that rushed to the finish. For this prototype I wanted to make players more aware of the mines and traverse the field more carefully.

I had initially intended to include a physical representation of each mine runner, who would have their limbs blown off as each life was lost. This gave me the idea of limiting player turns after each consecutive life was lost. By allowing careful players a greater quantity of moves, I would hope to encourage strategic game play over risky rushing.

On top of this re-working of the life and movement system, I decided to completely scrap the turn based mouse model of my previous prototypes in favor of a modern keyboard input model.This would allow players to simultaneously move together as they traversed the map.

Players will be allowed a combination of vertical and horizontal moves every 2 seconds(players can conduct twice as many horizontal moves than vertical ones) and operating the obstructer cannon can be done independently of moving. Players will collect obstructers and nades as they discover '?' tiles, which they may fire at their opponents via a cannon connected to their sprites.