Playtest in class – 2/8/18
Playtesting in John’s class went really well and helped me with many questions that I had. Here were a few questions I had when I started:
- Do you notice anything different between the pollen bullet and the honey bullet?
- What do you think of the name Beez?
- How was your experiences with speed of the player/enemies/bullets?
These questions led to many others. I found that I should add power ups for the bullets, which was my plan, but more specifically that I should add flower power ups. The initial stop of the enemy when it gets hit by the honey drops wasn’t obvious. If I were to add an effect, like honey splatter, over the enemies when I shoot them with honey would make it more obvious that they stop moving. I also found that if I put friendly bees coming towards you, it would make the player more focused on where they are shooting.
I also went in to the playtest wondering about the UI of the game. It was unclear whether the Quit button or the bee button was pushed at the end, so I made it more clear by including boxes around the sprites when they are selected (sprite swap). I also got input from players on the name. Since the goal of the game is to help your (bee)BFF, the game is called bff. The only clue to the fact that the game is about a bee is the bee start button on the menu page.
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I was also stuck between keeping a more realistic pixel look vs harsher pixel look to the characters and objects in game. I decided that I enjoyed the realistic pixel look more, but do plan on keeping a few elements not so realistic. I want to make the main character more like a cute, black bumblebee with realistic honey bee friends. I also wish to keep the wasp looking realistic since there should be nothing cute about the ones going after your bff.
Finally, I am changing the first menu screen to start with a click OR space. Since the main action of the game is to press spacebar to shoot bullets, I want the users to know that is how they can begin.
