RocketJumper

In this gamme

Week 2 -

1. What did I do this week?
   1. This week I created the start of my movement system. I added simple first-person controls that I can easily build on. I also create a simple environment to test the movement system.
      
2. How did that change my design?

   
   

   1. I am struggling with getting a solid idea for my game. I want to make a movement system that I can be happy with, and I want to experiment with it. I think I will create a game about dreams where the movement systems might change depending on the scene. I think this will allow the player to find the system they like best while leaving the game open to multiple genres. I will need to keep myself in check with this idea as I can see how it could easily get out of control, but I will start simple and create a couple of stages that add mechanics slowly. 
      
3. What are my goals for next week?

   
   

   1. Next week I will create the first stage, this stage should be a tutorial for the basics of player movement.  This will require a simple UI so that I can place text on the screen, and polish the movement system.
      

Week 3 -

1. This week I decided what I wanted to have in my game for my first playtest. While I didn't get much done in terms of coding I chose a couple of mechanics I can implement into the game so that I can understand if these work well from the playtest.

2. This changed my design by making it simpler and allowing me to focus on smaller tasks to decide if I wanted to keep them throughout the quarter.

3. My goals for next week are to make the movement feel more fluid, build a real introduction to the game, and add UI to my game to make it more easily understandable.

Week 4-

1. I worked on implementing more movement mechanics into the game this week. I tweaked the sprinting and added crouching and sliding. For my playtest I created a simple level to let the player explore the movement system because that is what I want to focus on for this playtest.

2. What I have added so far has changed my design to be more of a linear game, but I am waiting for the playtest to see how I should change this game going forward.

3. My goals for next week are to see how the player interacted with my game and depending on my feedback change the movement systems or add more mechanics. I am also interested in seeing how the player thinks this game will look in the future because that could change how I create stages in the future. For example, if the player thinks what I have created so far would work well in an open-world exploration type of experience that could be a better direction than locking the player into completing stages.

Playtest Setup -

1. For this playtest I am looking to see if the movement systems I have implemented so far are easy to understand. I am also curious about how the player uses these systems, if they rely too much on just simple running and jumping how could I push them into being more creative with what I have given them. I would also be interested in understanding what the player feels is missing if anything is missing from the game, for example, a double jump or a mantling mechanic.

2. The only instruction I want to give the player is the basics of first-person movement, such as WASD and mouse controls to move and look. Other than that simple running and crouching mechanics would be useful to know. I want to let the player explore the environment I created and let that environment teach them about more complex movements such as sliding and keeping up movement speed.

Playtest Review -

I’m happy with the answer I got to my question. I was asking about how the movement I have made feels so far, and how the player would learn to move around and play what I have created so far. I got good feedback, my play tester brought up games I was inspired by, and while I have not made the movement as complex as other games, I was happy to have those ideas reinforced. The playtester enjoyed what I had so far, but I did get some feedback asking for more movement mechanics such as grappling hooks.

Week 5-

1 This week I decided on what to change to my game using the feedback I got from my playtest. 

2. This did change my design in terms of concepts I want to add to my game, and it helped me understand the direction I want to take this game moving forward.

3. My goals for next week are to rework some of the movement and start implementing more movement mechanics. I will use the feedback I got to rework my game so that I will have interesting changes for my next playtest.

Week 6-

1  This week I decided on the direction I wanted to take my game in after the playtest. I want to change the way my game feels for the next playtest so that I can further refine my idea. I am choosing to remove some more complex controls so that I can create more simple controls that can be used together. I have experimented with more ariel movements and I think this is a better feel for my game. The game was mostly set on the ground and it felt too simple so I am experimenting with a sort of rocket jumping mechanic where the player can push themselves backward off of the wall. I am unsure of how often I should allow this, if there should be objects in the air that allow the player to continue to move through the air, or if I should just allow the player to continue to use this mechanic after a small cooldown. This is what I want to explore in the next playtest, and I will most likely experiment with both of these ideas to see what works best.

2. This changed my idea a bit, but I am glad to have a better idea for my game, and I feel that the gameplay will be a lot more interesting going forward. I did feel that the gameplay was boring during my first playtest and I am happy that I have more freedom to allow the player to traverse the environments I create more freely.

3. My goals for next week are to finish the new mechanics and create a new level so that my player will be able to play with these mechanics without the need to go through a structured course that holds the player's hand.

Week 7-

1 This week I added a mid-air dashing mechanic and decided to implement the pushing mechanic into the shooting mechanic I already have. This creates a distinction between the ground movement and air movement. While I did not get around to completing a new stage I think making something to test these mechanics will be very simple. I have decided to remove some of the ground movement mechanics as I am now taking this game in a different direction, this caused a good amount of errors and I spent a lot of time restructuring my code.

2. While my idea from last week did not change very much, I did end up changing some simple mechanics from the previous versions of my game.

3. My goal for next week is to take the feedback I got from this upcoming playtest to find more mechanics I can put into this game to give it a unique twist. Right now it still feels like it is missing a personal touch. I will possibly try to make it more challenging and ask some friends to test how playable it is. I have struggled with making games too hard as I get too familiar with the gameplay.

Playtest Setup -

1. I want to understand if the mechanics I have changed from the last playtest allow for more expressive movement. I will create multiple different ways to complete a stage and try to understand the first time my play-tester interacts with the stage as well as how they will interact with it towards the end and try to understand if there is a difference. I also am curious about the direction the player sees this game going forward, what mechanics they might enjoy in this style of game, and what I could work on to make the experience more enjoyable. I will ask this at the very end of the playtest after I understand the playstyles.

2. Movement mechanics such as WASD, shooting, and dashing. I will let them figure out the intricate details of each mechanic. I will tell the player to ignore art style and lack of UI.

Playtest Report -

1. My question was answered and I got a lot of great feedback from my play tester. I found that my level design was the biggest issue with my game so far as it throws the player into intense settings before giving them time to learn the mechanics. Besides other simple issues with some of the mechanics, this was the biggest problem.

2. My tester enjoyed the feel and what I was trying to get out of my game. He said that the mechanics were all there for building a fun game, but that I had to iron out some of the kinks in the mechanics to make it a more enjoyable experience. My tester did not enjoy the lack of direction in my game and found it difficult to discover the path I wanted him to take.

3. It always surprises me how challenging I make my games, and I need to focus on putting myself in the shoes of a new player when I am playing through my games.

Week 8 -

1. This week I had my playtest and I have decided to stay away from changing my player controller too much. I will mostly be working on my level design and fixing small issues in my player controller that causes the movement to feel janky

2. This hasn’t changed my design too much besides level design, however, my game, in general, has changed significantly from the first week.

3.  My goals for next week are to have all of the movement mechanics fixed, as well as make the level design more thought out for my players. This should allow me to teach the player slowly, and then I can focus on building the map out and adding some quality-of-life fixes to my game. In the next week, I plan to add a better tutorial, and some simple settings so that my players can make the game feel better for themselves.

Week 9 -

1. This week I took my feedback from my playtest and fixed the problems with the movement I discovered. This involved reworking some of the mechanics such as rocket jumping and dashing. I also thought out some level designs for the next iteration of my game. 

2. This has not changed my design much as the core of my game is the same. I just ended up polishing the feel of my game

3. My goal for next week is to create a nice stage that guides the player without holding their hand too much. I will let the level teach mechanics and try not to throw the player into the deep end with the mechanics I implemented. This involves using some visual elements and stacking my mechanics on top of each other.

Week 10-

1. This week I updated some of the weirdness in my mechanics and created a better world for my game. I mostly focused on how I could design the world to teach the player the mechanics I have made so far. This helped me build a longer game that gets increasingly more challenging.

2. This was a change from my previous stage, but it mostly is just an extension of the original. Not too much has changed, but I still fell like I could add more to this game.

3.  Next quarter I would like to work a lot on how the game looks, using particles and other resources to express how the player is moving would really help make this game feel complete. I would also add settings. In my second playtest, my player used inverted mouse controls and that made the experience worse. Other than that I will most likely work on a narrative or general story for this game even though it is very simple.

Final Playtest Setup-

1. For this playtest I want to find out if I found the fun in my concept. I spent a lot of time reworking and testing mechanics that I felt did not make my game fun, and I feel like it is in a good state. While there are still a lot of issues with this game, I think I could get good feedback on what I should keep working on in the future, and what I should think about removing or using less of. I am also curious if the world I have built out can get the player comfortable with the systems I created, and I should be able to tell if this is true by watching how the player interacts with this game. I will also be asking if there is anything else the player would like to see in this game.

2. The details I want my player to ignore are the graphics and lack of UI. So, I am mostly focused on how this game feels. All the controls are included in the game’s small tutorial section, and I will most likely ask my player to play this game two or three times to see how comfortable someone can get at this game in a small amount of time.

Final Playtest Report-

1. I got an answer to my original question of if I was able to have a fun experience in the end. My playtester said that the game was fun but had similar issues with the movement that my other playtesters had. I found that it is challenging to make a movement system that feels good to everyone. I was able to teach the movement mechanics simply with my map layout and that was a good experience.

2. My tester did not enjoy the air movement, and the lack of consistency in some of my mechanics. My playtester did enjoy the layout of my game and understood that this was an early version of my game.

3. Something that surprised me was the performance of my game. I put very little thought into the performance and this was realized early into the playtest. Overall it was successful and I got a lot of good feedback for how to improve this game going forward.