Feedback from the Graduate EAE Playtest

Last Friday, the graduate EAE program playtested our game. We got a good amount of feedback, particularly on a couple of small things:

• Enemy Feedback - The player is doing stuff to the enemies but the enemies aren't reacting yet. Players like to see a reaction to every action that they perform. It improves the experience
• Include Jump - We had hours of conversation about taking out the Jump mechanic. We all logically decided that jumps were not necessary. Being minimalists, we removed the non essential mechanics from the game. During the playtest, we spoke about how Jump isn't necessary but it's fun. That is a home run argument. We need to include a jump or we need to embellish the dash mechanic to make travel more fun in the game. 
• Unexpected benefits - Players like to be surprised. They like it when they suddenly get some new ability or something exciting happens to them in the game. We already have the dial mechanic and I think that it would be great to add unexpected player benefits for when the dial reaches 11. I want to see flames and particle effects all over the place when we reach 11. 
• Tutorial - As I spoke about earlier, we need a tutorial for our game. The controls are good but people need help understanding how the guitar translates. 
• Players should get rewarded for pacing attacks with the animations. I actually like this idea as a way to make the game more rhythmic. It is a music game afterall. 
• Duke Nukem Dialog - I loved the old Duke games particularly because of the personality. I think adding some Duke Nukem dialog would be a good nostalgic element. I think it adds more to the charm of our game. It could be a great addition. 
• Bonus Section - We have a score element of our game. I think we should take the bonus score sections of guitar hero and put it in our levels. I loved that jam session at the end of guitar hero songs and I think bonus sections could add a level of fun to our game. 
• Include small amount of movement with attacks - I think adding a small amount of movement helps players feel better about using the strum to attack and move. 

All of these points are small parts of a big project but I think it will add a lot to the project. 

Tutorial Section for the Game

The number one point of contention in our game has been the controls. Everyone plays guitar hero differently and when a player picks up a guitar hero guitar for a brawler, they have a certain way that they want to play the game.

As we talk about control schemes, the controls that make sense for our team are the controls that match their play style for Rock Band. This makes almost any control scheme not "intuitive." I am a believer in simplicity of games and I think a player should be able to  pick up any game and play it instantly. If you need to explain the controls, it probably means your controls aren't very good.

That being said, we are making a weird game and we have to retrain people to understand the control scheme of our game. We are combining two types of games and two types of control schemes.

We believe that if we have a strong tutorial players will accept our control scheme better. I think that the tutorial will dramatically help the understanding of our game and the transition from guitar hero to brawler.

Here's the tutorial script Nick just sent me:

1. Movement explanation

Guitar: you can move by strumming up/down

Controller: you can move by pressing left/right

Completion: A move here icon appears on the right of the screen

2. Dashing explanation

Guitar: you can dash by pressing green or orange and strumming in the direction you want to go (is this changing?)

Controller: you can dash by pressing left shoulder or right shoulder based on the direction you want to go

Completion: A move here icon appears in the middle of the screen

3. Hud explanation

Guitar/Controller:  This is your rock level, it goes up as you attack enemies, but goes down when you aren't attacking, or when you take damage.  If it goes below 1, you die.  Keep it high to get a better score. Press B to continue.

Completion: Player stays in place, enemy spawns.

4. Attack explanation

Guitar: You can attack by holding Red/Yellow/Blue and strumming in the direction you want to attack.

Controller: You can attack by pressing A/X/Y/B

Completion: Player stays in place.

5. Chord explanation

Guitar: You can perform chords, which are more powerful moves by holding any two buttons and strumming.  Try pressing Red+Yellow and strumming now

Controller: ???? idk how chords work on the controller

Completion: Player stays in place.

6. Slam explanation (should have a cooler name than slam)

Guitar: If you press Red, Yellow, and Blue at the same time, then strum you will perform your slam.  Strum rapidly to charge up your slam.

Controller:  If you press B you will perform your slam.  Press b rapidly to charge up your slam.

Completion: Enemy dies, player can move, go to end level trigger to finish (could possibly just end the game)

Rock Meter

Throughout the development of our game, we've struggled with integrating music into our game. We want players to get into the music and we want the music to matter to the game but our other design choices just didn't work. If we had the players directly influence music, button mashing would lead to bad things. If we made the controls too oriented towards guitar, it makes the controls too difficult. From the beginning we wanted music to be a big part of the game but we just couldn't figure out how to make it work.

The rock meter is what we needed in our game. Playing off of the Spinal Tap 11/10 volume meter (also the namesake of our company) we devised a game mechanic that incorporates music but also encourages high speed gameplay. The idea for the rock meter game up during a design conversation and I loved it. I think the idea was validated after it's first playtest. When the dial goes up to 11, players smile.

The dial represents the players health, how well the player is doing and the volume of the music that is being played. We wanted the dial to reflect reward systems in both guitar hero and fighting games. As the player does well, the dial goes up. The higher the dial goes, the louder the music gets and if the dial gets to 10, a crowd starts to cheer. If the dial gets to 11, a crowd comes on the screen and cheers and the character receives special abilities. If the player isn't doing well (getting attacked or not attacking constantly), the dial goes down. Below 3 on the dial lowers the music and causes booing.

I love this new mechanic. I think it adds a lot to our game and I think it makes the whole game more enjoyable. As I said earlier, play testers have started to smile while they play our game. That is what we are going for.