Playtest March 11th and Ubisoft

After the playtest on March 11th and Ubisoft we got a lot of further feedback on how we can improve our game and a lot of different things we’re going to have to discuss. Here is what people said:

For reference: ! in the text below means what they’ve actually said

PERSON 1:

D/n know which door to go through after getting out into the hallway
Walked towards the staircase in the start since it was open
Non-essential pickupable objects in the hallway are too distracting
! “What’s my objective of this game”
Needing to break the lights was not obvious
Audio probably didn’t play (it didn’t)
Took 5 iterations through the portals to break the lights
! “There needs to be a hint or something on what to do next”
Objective needs to be clearer (in the kitchen)
Trying the doors one by one after the bathroom
Microwave is too dark – can’t see the portal to return
! “So you guys made a puzzle game ehhh?”
Things weren’t intuitive

PERSON 2:

Had to introduce movement buttons b/c no direction on the paintings
Need to distinguish b/w non-essential and essential items in the game (ex. hallways)
Crosshair ray might be a bit too narrow/short (?) (something about not being able to pick things up the way they wanted to)
CENTRALIZE BUTTONS -> people want to press ‘T’ to “use” since T was introduced as “drop”
Had to notify that “use” and “drop” were 2 different functions
Did not walk into the open pre-tutorial door as first instinct
Again, picking up non-essential items
Enterable doors in the hallways are really not obvious
TeleportTo for the bathroom pushes player inside the niche of the wall: when the player back up they hit the portal and teleports again
When exist to the hallway after bathroom -> head directly ACROSS the hall to the opposite door
Cookbook should show ingredients
Put things into the pot is not intuitive
Orb was not well lit enough to be known for pick up
Direction of guiding footsteps should probably change after pickup
Hard to convey there were 3 ingredients
Interact with pot was not obvious
! “It was interesting!”

PERSON 3:

Pedestal in the pre-tutorial isn’t that well lit
Frustrated that he can’t drop things back ONTO the table (where he picked up)
Has to explain leading door candlelights
DOOR pushes player backwards
People think they can climb UP walls for some reason
Lock the room when they enter!
Kitchen is too dark overall
Show how footsteps changed between each element in the pot
Really need to highlight objects that are interactable
Pot isn’t well lit enough to see -> players often missed it

PERSON 4:

Did not first realize what a crosshair does
ALSO, pressed DROP for ‘USE’
Went immediately to hallways items (again)
Tries to inspect the first dining set WAY too closely
Do not follow the footsteps back to pot (after picking up ONE single item)
Drop the crown on the middle of her way back
Disorients self on a wall
Does not look at orb at all
Picks up objects but d/n not intuitively know to put them in the pot
Wrong order is sucky!!! (my footprint logic wasn’t fixed then)
Did not miss the necklace but missed the orb (again)
Did! figure out that we were in the microwave + the portal there (it was dark)
Seems to not follow footsteps, again

PERSON 5:

Climbing the initial slope is so difficult
Welp -> hallway items again
Goes to the staircase immediately again
Candles on top of door is REALLY not obvious
Should we make bathroom to kitchen linear? b/c now they can choose to enter any of the two
The player has no way of knowing where they will teleport to – they get confused by where they land after portals
Also, it seems hat players have no trouble getting themselves inside portals
! “Is this normal” on looking at the two sides of the bathroom

Broke the light but the key drop is almost too quick for people to realize what happened
Could pick up the key on the toilet from the other side of the wall
Confused self with orientation of the portals
! “Am I walking on the wall or what’s happening here?”

Went directly across the hall to try out next door
Went too close to the door and got pushed back when door opening
Only followed footsteps when told so
Lighting in the kitchen is hard to see + need to show footsteps changing paths
Most people either miss the orb or the necklace
! “oh this one” (after) being told about the last item

PERSON 6:

Why is he insistent on holding the jug from the hallway???
How did he manage to drop the jug on the oven???
! “Oh finally” (after exiting the microwave, couldn’t see the portal, but want to walk into the microwave door to exit)
Pressed T for use (again)
Slowly getting the hang as more and more items are retrieved
People not following the footsteps
! “Ugh you kinda just walked right past it” (on the necklace)

PERSON 7:

Had to explicitly mention the stove and the pot on the kitchen (too dark to see)
D/N follow footsteps (again)
Necklace wasn’t obvious (again)
! “Why am I so small… Why is the fork so big… ahhh!” (came to a sudden realization about the room after seeing the fork at the end of the kitchen)

PERSON 8:

Cannot see where the key fell to in the bathroom
Confused by the path because do not know where portals lead to
Unguided success!!! (in the bathroom)
Bubbling of the pot is too loud and too prevalent in game, gets annoying after a while
People like to go forward after grabbing an item and not head back to use it
Motion blur (due to fps) is disorientating and motion sickening

PERSON 9:

Had to explicitly say that hallway items are not used
Was interested in portals and was teleporting back and forth
! “What, I’m on the wall now.” (after first teleport)
Should disable room after they complete
Had a friend sitting beside him – solved puzzles faster
Went to the door on the left of the bathroom for the next room
Bronze items look too much like gold and misleading
Yellow plate is also misleading
! “Nice!” (After looking up at spoons and forks)
! “Oh it’s upside down!”
! “Oh it’s supposed to be like that!”
Could not see stove/pot
Like the super large fork at the end
Still can hear boiling from “any room” (thinks that different areas of the room are different rooms, as well as sound too loud)
WANT a shift button to increase walking speed
! “This is the trippiest game I’ve ever played”
! “You can pick up this big thing?”
! “But actually the fork is big so you got smaller” (Upon realizing different scale with fork after talking with friend)

PERSON 10:

Cannot walk up the stairs in pre-tutorial
Camera 7 not rendering (?)
Door: can i run into this?
Finals in kitchen, “ah, the footsteps”
Can i break microwave glass?
Can i run aster?
No interact on frying pan
Boiling is annoying (sound)
Start to go to stairway

PERSON 11:

Sanitary earbuds please
Did not know what a crosshair is
Had a lot of questions during play through
Candles are way too faint even after mentioning
Key dropping sound plays at the beginning of the load, not the breaking of the glass
Putting portal right beside the bathroom wall did not encourage exploration/teleported player too quickly/on accident
Kitchen: how to direct attention away from the dining set at the front

PERSON 12:

Habit of pressing ‘SPACE’ to interact
! “Why am I getting pushed back?” (on falling down the pre-tutorial ramp)
Immediately goes to try for the doors one by one
! “That’s whack yo” (on looking at the bathroom ceiling)
Motion sick: spin is bad
! “Oh so it’s like the 2 rooms are flipped”
Hard to illustrate that this is all of ONE room just different sides
Amazed on openable drawers
Proceeds to keep opening drawers
Expect to break kitchen light (a lot of them actually said this -> consistent introduction of mechanics?)
Did not infer the same footstep following mechanic as the bathroom though (d/n follow footsteps)
! “I’m so lost” (completely ignoring footsteps)
! “Do I wait for the boiling to finish and then melt [the other item]?”
Is very comfortable with portals + accustomed to them
Boiling gets annoying
Gold looks too much like bronze

PERSON 13:

Oh lol a box collider on the spoon wall was not big enough
Necklace is so hard to see
Jumped up in shock when shattering sound plays (not the first time someone was shocked either)
Walked towards the final staircase (again)

PERSON 14 (not on survey):

Tries to find fallen key in the laundry hamper and trash, not toilet (key fall is hard to see)
Chris already told him about the candlelight so opened bathroom fine, but did not see kitchen even though BEING TOLD about the light (wayyy too faint)
Thought the key unlocks the next door (not the first time)
Thought lights are all breakable (false familiar mechanic)
Thought footprints are where you have already BEEN, not where to lead you to go (worked out but not the right purpose)
Likes the maze aesthetic
Why is the orb squished when picked up?
Want a consistent visual cue to lead them to the next goal
Want an indicator for completed areas
Motion sickness exists
Lack of direction generally

— PLAYTEST: UBISOFT (Thursday) —

First person puzzle – puzzle?
2nd room is wayyy too dark to see (the one with the 2 portals)
Ahhh the lag
Breaking a simple light doesn’t make you particularly less rich
The spoon looks a bit too reflexive
Collection is for melting -> not JUST collecting
Match narrative to gameplay
Maybe look around surrounding more (how to get players to)
Inventory items…?

ART:

Portal: a lot but too crush black
o Spiral/Distortion/Wavy effect
o Can sell more
Footsteps are cool but why are there 2 sets? Bring down to 1
o Can be simplified
The main marble floor is good, but some parts of kitchen -> imbalance of details
o Watch out for scale of things
o Wall paper can be scaled up/or is scaled up too big
o Img on wall is too big -> loses resolution
Can have more details ex. Door frames to sell room as a manor better
o Little things that can be more effective
No shadows -> d/n look grounded

LEVEL DESIGN:

Immediate very first room: smash and break is consistent with lore
o But! Egg on pedestal and portal came out of nowhere
Struggling to follow w/ puzzles to escape room
Make sure the players KNOWS about the 2 keys
Consistently remind the player the OBJECTIVE and how to get the key
Melting in kitchen: theme is correct, but couldn’t tell what the collection is about
Art can support design, highlighting, shadows, colours
o Lit pedestal on dark room – focal point
Kitchen: is cool abstract but could use highlight and shadows to create path
Change scale when moving around -> need landmark to help the player orient themselves!
o Inventory rotation was not obvious to them to keep track of the orientation
o Also, you aren’t holding something all the time

AI:

Honestly don’t get reason to have portals
Prefer exploration > portals -> (but free cams can take away exploration?)
The gameplay mechanic is confusing
Was tripping out… emmm is that the desired effect?
Personally we aren’t clear of the objective
What are your 3’cs? Explorations? Are the portals necessary?
Portals may be hogging up budget
Smash glass -> one of the things would be satisfying to smash everything
Natural way to discover a house would be nice

LEVEL DESIGN:

Want to establish weirdness only after making the player feel like it’s a NORMAL house first
o Looking up at the bathroom ceiling and discovering it was a duplicate was a good way to do so
o Kitchen: too immediately weird w/ the giant cutlery
Kitchen:
o Good that we highlight the pan
o But cook book sprite is lacking to guide the player
o Maybe put the microwave beside the pot to make the players SEE that we need to get into the microwave somehow
o THEN just put roadblock to eliminate and let the player break the barriers

AI:

One thing that comes to mind
o Don’t treat the first portal just as a DOOR
o It doesn’t do anything if it doesn’t teleport you like the rest of the portals
Simplify other portals to get one SOLID portal mechanic that lead you weird places
More purposeful puzzles than just trial & error
Less black on portals to take things away

LEVEL DESIGN:

Seems like a walking simulator > puzzle
Problem: need to constraint the portals as a mechanic
o Maybe to 1 or 2 GOOD ONES that have creative design to create a path for the player to get through the game
o Let portals become a skill that is memorized
o Want the players to KNOW when things CALL FOR portals

ART:

Can push lighting MUCH further
Emphasize things! Like a darkened room & putting spotlights
Don’t have an exterior blue to make it seem light out
Chandeliers!
Kitchen is too high -> can gradient to darker ceilings
o Ex. Too much space above the cabinets
o Use details! Such as murals/paintings to fill space
o Classic: an old white man with a monocle
o Things that only rich people would have

OVERALL: really cool

Q&A:
Level Design:

Think about the feeling of the players, you don’t want them to feel the climax before you introduce anything else that’s boring-er
Performance: path is limited, individual objects with expensive shaders are costly
Have a different kind of weirdness
o Ex. Bathroom can be room duplicated up and down, and since it’s smaller it can rely on portals no problem