I had 3 players test my game. One of them was my sister, one of them was my mother, and the last was a friend of mine who I sent the package to named Alan. I reviewed this level with my previous feedback in mind, and attempted to create a map which challenged the players and rewarded exploration. I had the players test my game with a keyboard and mouse.
First, the players said my placement of the checkpoints was okay, but that I needed to include text to indicate that they are checkpoints. I am ashamed that I did not learn from my previous level when designing the checkpoint system. The players expressed that the general enemy location was good, and the ideas behind their placement were solid. However, as I am about to discuss, my many, many oversights on the technical level lead to my level being unplayable.
What went wrong?
The level was full of technical issues, making it unbeatable in the submitted build. I attempted to add switches which opened multiple doorways, but this functionality simply wouldn't work. Also, the navigation for the enemies did not work properly. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the enemies to be able to walk in the level consistently. Then, one of my players discovered that I accidentally forgot to set the walls as environment pieces, meaning the player could bypass the entire level and skip to the end if they knew which direction to go. The level was also uninspired, and could have used some details to make it more visually appealing, according to my tester Alan.
Next time, I plan to fix all of my technical issues which should have been addressed in the first build. I plan to add a bit of variety to the level, and incorporate more areas accessible with some exploration. I plan to add more objects to my level for aesthetic purposes to give an idea to the player of what their environment would look like with textures. Finally, I plan to reevaluate the placement of my doors, specifically the ones which do not open, and consider placing secondary switches for them instead of attempting to make one switch serve two purposes.
No. Due to my large oversight, the level was a cakewalk, with enemies being easily skippable throughout. My players were able to dispatch most enemies very quickly as well, since the enemies could not move. My players said the level only had difficulty when the ranged enemies were introduced, since they could still attack the player without moving.
Was the critical path obvious?
The critical path was less obvious in this level. I used colored doors to guide the player, so that when they found a key, they would be directed to the next door. My players said this was a good concept, and that they would like to try it again when I have a more stable build of my level.
How was the overall flow?
The overall flow was horrible. While the direction of the flow was good, the players felt that it was ruined by the technical errors. The level was a great concept, but needed to be stable. Unfortunately, since I did not use a stable build, I did not receive any feedback in this regard, which is entirely my fault.
Were there circulation elements?
Yes. I added doors of different colors to catch the players' eye, and I added things like elevation and stairs. However, this was a bit wonky for the AI, so I may think about doing ramps instead of stairs next time.
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