Our Last Hope (Is Some Kid) - Blog Post 3

Sprint 3

Now that Sprint 3 has come to a close, I feel relatively comfortable with using Trello. I still could use work on writing good user stories for the cards. I became very good at making sure that the cards that are needed for the sprints are already in the backlog, as well as staying on top of adding new cards any time a new one is needed. The addition of points to the cards didn’t seem as complicated as I thought it would be initially. Most of my user stories are all one point, with a few three point exceptions and two epics, which is ideal.

I began this sprint by adding all the keys and doors to the level, so that the play testers would have a reason to use the movement mechanics when playtesting the prototype. I had to add a couple walls to block off areas that wouldn’t be completely ready by the time the playtest occurred. I also had to change a bit of the challenge in level 2, to make the goal a key instead of a box to push off the shelf.

I then made a Google Form for playtesters to fill out and give valuable feedback based on the rubric provided for the class. We only had five playtesters, one of which did not have time to answer the form, but each of those playtesters provided useful insight into how we can improve the game. Playtesters pointed out that the first wall climb was difficult, it wasn’t clear which grapple the player could grapple to, and sometimes the player could lock the game by getting Kevin stuck in a vent or preventing the hand from reattaching. Some suggestions for things to add in the game was also to have either a countdown timer or a maximum radius to limit the player when they are in hand mode.

I then playtested the prototype myself before the playtest day to ensure that everything was ready for playtesting. While I didn’t notice anything that would break the prototype, I did notice a couple things. Like the playtesters, I noticed that the distance the player could grapple was not clear. I also found that there’s an area where the hand can fall off the map from under a vent entrance, which was a simple fix of just adding a wall under the vent. Sometimes when unlocking a door, it takes the game a bit of time to actually open the door. It’s enough time to where it made me think the game wasn’t working properly, and if I was a playtester I would think the game was broken. I believe this can be fixed by having the player click a button to open the door, instead of simply walking up to it. I also think that it would benefit the player if UI would pop up telling the player if they can or cannot unlock the door.

After the playtest, I made the grapples more clear by making the hooks that the player can grapple to glow when pointed at.  The mouse will now also lock to the center of the screen when clicking on the game window. 

During this sprint, I also made a spreadsheet with weapons to add to the game. Some weapons can be picked up by the hand, while others cannot. Each weapon has a different amount of damage, amount of duration, and type of attack. Some weapons are used to hit enemies, while others are shot or thrown. The different numbers are based on the assumption that most enemy health is at 5. Balancing would have to happen after the weapons are created, so that we can test different damage and duration amounts.