What's New?
Tutorial Invulnerability
Previously, players who started off playing the game new often died in the tutorial. As a result, many of the players did not get to interact with game fully (get to the main game). To combat this, we have removed dying from the tutorial and have set a minimum threshold which your health can fall to.
Tutorial Guidance
The end of the tutorial is not entirely obvious to players. We have improved this guidance so that it is more obvious to players.
Claw Functionality
During our previous play-test, players felt that it was logical / intuitive for the claw to be able to grab the note. We have since added this capability into our game.
Inconsistent Engine Sounds
We found that in our recent iteration where we introduced the siren into the game, it would sometimes play inconsistently. The expected behavior is that the siren should play when the engine is broken and no one is there to fix it. What was happening was that whenever the player also input a button wrong while fixing it, the siren would also play once. We have since removed this inconsistency from the game.
End Screen
We added a more satisfying end screen. Instead of just saying you win, treasure also begins to rain down from the ceiling!
Checkpoint / Restarts
A huge addition to our game, we have added checkpoints to our game so that it is now easier for players to complete the game in a timely manner and less frustrating. These checkpoints become triggered when notes / certain parts of the map are passed through for the first time by the players.
Voice / Music Volumes
Music in the beta release was too loud in relation to the voice lines in the game. We have thus tweaked the volume. IT should be easier to hear the voices now.
Ship Appearance Clarity
Previously, it wasn't clear to players what the health bar signified. We have thus added in addition to the health bar, different ship sprites which reflect the current damage to the exterior of the ship.
Player animations
We added player animations so the players aren't just sliding around when they move now
Main Menu
In this iteration, we have finally changed the main menu screen! We have chosen a more suiting song as well as a background that connects more to the game. In addition, we have changed the theming from 3D to 2D to be more consistent with our game.
What's the Motivation?
This week, our goal was to improve player experience as much as possible. Anything that might hinder player experience (music being too loud, sprites being hard to see, etc) were of our top priority. In the end it's the players who will judge whether or not they had fun / had a positive experience while playing our game, thus we wanted to improve that as much as possible.
What's next?
Right now, we want to play-test and check player experience. We want to fix any inconsistencies we find and add the final touches.
