Library Playtest

Library Playtesting Session

We started this week off by playtesting Etherian Sol at the local library, where anyone from the community could play our game.

The overall consensus was that the camera was difficult to use (which was an issue we were already aware of) but the game was very fun and nice to look at. We fixed that the following day, but even so, there were a few spots though where the art was not working the way it was supposed to. For example, heading up the tower, many players would stop and think they had gone the wrong way, when all they needed to do was look up. After simply adding a block to keep the visual lines flowing, I did some more testing, and it seemed to have fixed the issue. I will be cleaning the changes up later today, but the most important thing was to test that the change worked.

Another issue we ran into was that the players did not feel that the world they were on was alien. My first thought was to change the color of the grass to make it redder, but that did two things wrong:

1) The world felt inhospitable and dangerous rather than inviting and fun

2) There was no longer enough of a visual cue separating the ground and the temple

We did manage to change the sky color though, which did a lot, but even then, that wasn't enough. Finally, we received a suggestion to put planets and moons in the sky, which may seem like the obvious solution, but when you've been working on a project for 12-15 hours a day every day, obvious ceases to be a word in your vocabulary.

Additionally, players would forget how many batteries they needed and could not see the number at the top right designating how many they had, so we added an image of the battery, changed the color from dark grey to white, and added a "/4" to re-communicate how many were required.

Finally, we noticed two more gameplay issues:

1) Sessions were taking far too long - upwards of 15 minutes at times when we were aiming for 5-10

2) Players would actually put down the controller when they got the fourth battery, because they did not want to go back around the temple. One even stated that they were frustrated that they had been circling this ship the whole time, and then they finally get to hole in it and they can't go in.

Therefore, we decided to very quickly make a path in the ship for the player to be able to run through once they've reached the end. I had been concepting the ship's interior for a good part of the year, but we got rid of it to focus on other issues. I have had a very clear idea in my head of what it should look like, and modeled a very basic version in a matter of a few hours. As it is not up the same level as the rest of the game, it is still inaccessible, but I will be cleaning it up considerably over the weekend. It was very important to keep the scope very low though, because Level Up is in two weeks.

While this is a hefty task to take on, I am certain it is well within my capabilities having modeled and textured far more than that within the course of a week. Additionally, considering players would actually leave the game over it was very clear it was needed.

Other Changes

I found that crystals - when scaled up - make fantastic rocks, which worked for me. I also found that taking the stone texture and using it as a normal map created a pattern that is commonly seen in Ukiyo-e mountains.

Unfortunately, I now can't stop thinking "Toblerone" whenever I go up to the tower:

I made two changes to Theseus this week:

1) I added eyes

2) I added the broken piece of his ship to his back

From the start, we have been using Okami as reference for obvious reasons.

Just like the character above, Theseus' body is far more detailed than his face. I am considering using a little more color on the back of his head, because it feels flat and empty, but otherwise, I am quite happy. Additionally, he blinks every five seconds, which gives him a lot more life with very little effort.

The piece on Theseus' back broke off in the ship, and would be used to combat enemies later in the game if we were making the whole thing. It therefore is meant not only to improve his silhouette, but also as a means to hint that there will be more later in-game.

In an attempt to make the spaces feel less empty, I added a vase model and added the pillars that I had made earlier in the year.

The pillars now add a splash of color to the corners of the room, but I will need to work on making them work more with the style of the game as for some reason they tend to stick out.

One thing that I noticed while looking at more Ukiyo-e images was that they all seemed to have a noise to their textures. Therefore, I added a noise over top of many of the textures, which turned out to work fantastically.

Finally, I added a fog to the map. This was for the purpose of telling the player that they are on top of a mountaintop and should not stray into the fields.

This also had a nice effect that I was not expecting, but was welcome anyway where the particles would roll across the scenery, creating a liveliness to the world.

The Basement Also got an upgrade this week:

With the first of the symbols in, and the oracle with its shader, the scene feels far more lively. Theseus can only enter the white door on the left, but there are hints to other Greek Mythological creatures as well. In the middle is the Cretan Bull and on the right is the Hydra.

Next Week

I plan to have the ship's interior complete by next Friday at the latest, but most of the rest of the week will need to be spent compiling all of the documentation that I have made, creating a presentation on that documentation, and getting the supplies we will need for Level Up.