Kilan Larsen
3D Game Kit Level 1
For this project I designed a level using Unity's 3D Game Kit Lite asset pack, and had several playtesters try it out and provide feedback. Here's what I learned:
Layout: The level itself was built within a simple rectangle, with walls blocking the outside and a central wall cutting through the middle. While this is easy to build in Unity and doesn't look too bad... it's pretty lazy game design to be honest and really isn't that interesting to look at.
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Instead, I should aim to make a more dynamic looking edge to the map, and better give the impression that the player is moving through a real place.
Critical Path: This aspect is much better done. As you can see by the red lines and numbered/lettered dots, the player starts off along a very linear path and is forced to see and do certain things in a specific order. This allows me to teach the player the necessary mechanics, before allowing them to roam more freely in the second area where they can more or less activate the 4 switches in any order.
Too many enemies!
For each switch that the player finds, they are likely to find at least 1 enemy guarding it. For 2 switches in particular, they are surrounded by about 6 enemies each. While enemies are not difficult to kill (even after reducing the player's health and invulnerability), they can get tedious and annoying to fight. Instead, I should base a couple of switches around platforming based puzzles to break up the monotony of fighting.
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Another problem with the enemies is simply that their audio is bugged, and plays loudly no matter where you are in the level. This problem with the Game Kit can be mitigated a bit by reducing the total enemy count.
Boundary Breaking
There are two different methods that play-testers found where they could climb up on the walls on the edge of the level and break the sequence of play. The first spot, is simply to jump up on the large pipe in the starting area. The rounded geometry allows the player to scale up it, despite its height. The second method is shown here, where boxes are used to make the jump onto the wall.
Fortunately, both of these problems can be easily solved. First by adding an invisible collider to prevent players from jumping up onto the pipes, and by increasing the height of the outside walls.
Dialogue Boxes
Most players found that the added dialogue boxes enriched the gameplay by adding story and context to their actions. However, I did get feedback that it may have been overused in certain cases, such as the screenshot shown above. Instead of having Ellen (the protagonist), verbally say "Huh? What's in the lake?" to draw attention to it, I can add a sound effect of the platforms bubbling up to the surface of the lake. Another technique would be to position the pressure plate in such a way that it directs the player's view towards the lake as it is pressed, and the player can see for themselves what just happened.
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Expand level layout and use more interesting edges than walls
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Make sure players cannot use boxes or pipes to boundary break
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Reduce enemy count in the level
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Develop new platforming sections to reach certain switches
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Teach the player through 'seeing' rather than 'saying' wherever possible
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Hide secrets to encourage exploration
Changes to implement: