Final Devlog - Testing

Shot Count

During the formal testing session, it was suggested that I add a shots fired to kills ratio. I thought it was a cool idea, so I set to work.

Pictured above: Shots fired count (displayed at end of level).

While implementing this feature, I decided that I would have a plain shot count, rather than a ratio. You will get the exact same number of kills each time you play a level, so why bother factoring that in to the final score? Showing only the shots fired seemed to be more readable and interesting in this case.

Difficulty Settings

It also became very apparent that the game was too difficult for many players. To alleviate this, I added 2 new difficulty modes: Easy and Hard. In Easy Mode, all projectiles move much slower, allowing you to dodge some attacks (essentially impossible to do in Normal). In Hard Mode, all projectiles move slightly faster, and you only get 30 shots per-level (this feature was specifically suggested during the testing session).

Pictured above: Limited shots counter in top left.

Once you have run out of shots, you will fail the level (only in Hard Mode).

Pictured above: Game over when running out of shots.

The difficulty can be easily changed with a handy button on the menu screen.

Pictured above: Menu with new difficulty button.

This is actually the first time I've ever added difficulty settings to one of my games (due to it often being too much trouble to implement/balance), so this is a cool milestone for me. It helps that Extrication is a very simple game, so only small changes were needed to provide players with a different experience.

The Things Left Behind

I really wanted to add a few more features/changes to the game to make it better (in response to user feedback), but I barely had any free time this week.

One cool feature I thought would make the game more replayable was a per-level high score system.

Pictured above: A mockup of what I wanted this feature to look like.

I wanted the game to save your lowest shots-fired score for each level, so that you could have something to compare against. I thought it would be a good motivator for replaying the game. Sadly, I eventually had to make the call that it was too ambitious (given the timeframe), so I cut the feature. If I had to start the project over, I would keep this mechanic in mind from the start.

Testing Observations

The main thing I learned from the testing session (and from the expo) is that general audiences enjoy arcade mechanics. Things like high scores and alternate modes are great at sucking players in and allowing them to enjoy your game in their preferred way. I would like to keep this nugget of knowledge in mind for future games, as it will hopefully help me receive better feedback from a wide variety of gamers.

Another interesting observation was seeing people learn how to play properly in real time. They went from constantly dying to perfecting their technique. Most players could then breeze through the levels without too much struggle. It was really cool to see everyone slowly get the hang of the game. The security door puzzle in level 4 was also solved in the exact way I hoped by everyone who reached it, which is definitely a plus. One person briefly struggled with the security doors (because they skipped straight to level 6 and missed the faux-tutorial in level 4). While not ideal, this is a consequence of skipping parts of a game in general, and I'm not sure if I could really fix that.