20/21 Y1B - Team 10 - Lazy Lily

Thanks for the build!

Ok, alot of my notes essentially paraphrase Alan.

1st impressions is a slightly fragmented product that whilst metrics are feeling better, the pace and flow seems slightly hit & miss.

There's so many 'quality of life' fixes that trying to look past those is really hard to not do. There's inherent issues in all levels that seem to be problematic to those levels (scrutinizes Tamar's snow volume logic,...).

Theres a blockout language coming through and each level has its merits. I do particularly like that nice green material used in Nikola's level and I would like that material reused in other levels for consistency please.

As far as scale is concerned, yes, its starting to frame the experience. Whats impacting the scale though is the camera work and its this investigation or implementation thats really having a massive impact throughout. So a camera pass/balance would be ideal!

Checkpoints & speed bumping the players progress needed.

Balancing the health with all of the user feedback.

With the Level Design itself, some of the difficulty spikes in some levels (Looks over glasses at Davvy) need a bit of TLC.

Watch 'branching paths' throughout. Right now the signposting and general setup has quite found the right balance. Hoeki's level, whilst really well planned out, suffers with branching paths and some dubious checkpoint placement.

Guys,... "LESS IS MORE". Trim the fat where needed or work the flow to be more engaging and intuitive rather than a conscious decision.

So yeah, we need to see the next build a series of house keeping and bug fixes.

Keep at it, there's a really nice little game under all of this.

General:

* There's signs of a fun game here, marred by little issues with teamwork and pipelines, and with a difficulty curve that's just all over the place right now! A good chunk of iteration on level design is really needed in the last couple weeks.

* Controller support in main menu, please!

* Checkpoints need visual indication of having passed them, and logic to prevent them being hit multiple times (the chime sound). Notice that they disappear in Hoikei's and Nikolay's levels for some reason?

* In general, there's some things going on here (the character seems to be a different colour after dashing in some levels, checkpoints don't always work the same, grass implemented differently) that make me wonder about your cohesiveness as a team? If one person sets something up (like the grass or the checkpoints) then (A) they should be communicating it to everyone, and (B) they should be bundling everything necessary into one actor and setting the default values, not relying on others to go in and turn things on and off! Remove the collision permanently on the grass mesh via the mesh editor. Make sure all checkpoint behaviour logic is in the checkpoint, etc ...

* The player is able to "ride" the hazards - is this intended?

* Why are there two separate death responses? I don't get the animation/tune when I land on the spikes!

Tudor:

* Watch for open spaces and geometry leading the player in the wrong direction - I was pulled LEFT from the start rather than right. Just move the tree up a bit. Maybe consider some slopes?

* Some nicely spaced jumping, and the touch with the companion luring me into facing the enemy was really nice. 

* The jump from the lower platform in the first level feels almost achievable - not quite a serious problem, but worth looking at.

* If you're going to have your level be on the "Play" button, make sure it has its full logic in place, even if the geometry isn't there ...

Davy

* First set of blue platforms seem pointless? I can just bypass them?

* Don't put checkpoints anywhere other than the golden path of the player

* If possible, avoid scenarios where the player bumps their head on things. Not the worst when you have a low ceiling, but combined with a jump it can be a little awkward

* There's nothing fun or strategic about the forked path choice. "Easy or difficult" isn't a challenging decision, it's a player preference - and, for the most part, the job of the game designer is to define the difficulty of the experience. Would heavily suggest removing this, since the easy path doesn't have much of interest on it anyway.

* MASSIVE difficulty spike when you reach platforms + hazards + gas!

* During this section, it's possible to have the blue platform push you up INTO a hazard, at which point you glitch awkwardly through the platform - looks very messy.

* Mind your gap sizes just after this - they're a little short.

* Might want to tweak the deep pit + red spiky guys a bit, because although the blue platform is there to guide you in, you still can't see the floor when you enter the space.

Hoikei

* Remove the text from your level, please! Treat this as a product, not a school exercise.

* Spikes near the start are IMPOSSIBLE to see in the grass

* Same issue as Davy re: split path. Nothing to make the choice on, nothing feels good or exciting about the decision. This gets extreme as the level goes on - it feels like you missed something important in learning about level design before engaging in this! There's a LOT of content that might need to be trimmed back a bit here.

* Hard to give you feedback on everything due to the multiple branching paths.

* Watch your timing on moving platforms & hazards combined. Sometimes the two sync up in a way that makes passing them unfair, and it's very hard to judge the timing as a result. Think "challenge" - the challenge here is partly pattern recognition, so make sure there is a clear pattern!

Tamar

* Still can't play this, because every time I exit the blizzard my character movement stay the same as in the blizzard. Is this a rare bug? I thought I put this in the feedback last week ...

* I also collide with the grass when I fall between the platforms, leaving me stuck ...

Nikolay

* Not much to report on here - nice ideas, but obviously short of an actual level right now.

* And yes, work on the camera.

Overall, you're progressing but you need to keep an eye on avoiding "style over substance", and you need to squash a few bugs! At this point, simplifying features that you can't control is the only option I'm afraid. If it isn't working and it can't be fixed, it either goes completely or it gets scoped down into some easier to handle.

You're basically making actual levels in your gyms right now, which isn't a great idea. Make sure you're all on the same page, make sure you're following the pipeline for level design, and get cracking on turning those challenge ideas into actual levels.

* Controller support in the menu please!

* Love the menu design, but it feels like whoever settled on the background and the foreground didn't talk to each other! Make clever use of the space.

Davy

* Some nice observation of metrics. Level feels like it "flows".

* On the other hand, a lot of awkward and nasty bugs with gas zones firing at the wrong time among other things. Hopefully we caught most of those on Friday.

Hoikei

* Style over substance! Barrel at the start of the level is an immediate example. Cute, but the edges block the player movement leading to unnecessary jumping. Plus, isn't this a gym level? Don't "put the cart before the horse" - figure out your challenges and your level design before you polish in future.

* Watch the tone. This forest is getting creepy and foreboding.

* I really like the mix of vertical and horizontal play you're creating, it really gives the game a new feel, but this is not your game to define in that sense - make sure that if you're experimenting with things you're working with the rest of the team. This goes for the aesthetics and for the core gameplay.

A shift to this combined vert/horiz setup is going to come with a shift in game feel and goals. You're very much moving towards a game that combines exploration and traversal now. This is less Rayman and more Rick Dangerous (look it up if you don't know it). It works - it works well - but make sure you're not making decisions for the team without discussing it with them.

(Having played around with the other levels, I see I might have been wrong here, and you're just going vertical but still linear ... so maybe this doesn't apply! Leaving it here anyway because I kinda liked the idea of going a bit more exploratory)

* Don't - especially if the game is more exploratory - put me in a position where I can't reach a collectible. The setup at the top of the trees is a lovely intermediate-hard challenge, but flew by too quickly for me to adjust to grab my collectible buddy, and now they're out of reach forever. :(

* Don't make the player make a "leap of faith" ... same section ...

* I actually spent some time wandering through the grass after that ... while I don't like that you added a bunch of aesthetic elements too early, and not in tandem with the rest of the team, it does add to the feel.

Tudor

* Good to see exploration of basic jumping challenges, but you need to watch your metrics. 

In particular, make sure that you're avoiding jumps that look possible but aren't (where the first enemy is, you've got two steps for climbing out the pit, and it looks like you can jump to the platform from the first step), and consider the distance the player has to walk before the dash resets. It's not fun to stand and wait for it to pop back on.

Tamar

* Again, aesthetics are a nice touch, but be wary of style over substance - and of both you and Hoikey diverging in your approach to them. Both of you are building different styles both visually and in gameplay ...

* Pulsing blizzards really didn't seem to be working? Snowfall was constant, and the effect stayed on the character after I left the zone! Unfortunately I couldn't get past the water jumps as a result :(

Remco

* Still can't pass your 3D moving platforms. It's a nice idea but it's impossible to tell when the platforms are lined up enough to land on them. Needs a clear indication - consider using lighting (throw massive shadows on the foreground/background) or just use a placeholder material colour change for now

Nikolay

* Some lovely basic setups on display, but watch your timings. Don't leave the player standing around if you can avoid it, and give the player enough space to refill their dash without having to wait.

There is much to love here, its really well presented and Im excited to see what you're going to do with this. I do, as always, have an issue with game that maybe you can clarify. What kind of game are you making? When it was initially pitched I remember it being about the journey and that it was focused on that rather than anything too challenging. Every level that I came across was lovely and I was feeling relaxed, soaking in the atmosphere, listening to the music and wham! I was killed. Is this what your going for? Hoikei your level showed a lot of love and attention to iteration as did Tamar's. Davy, I can see what you're doing here and it needs refinement. They rest of you, where is your work. 

Oh and the dash not on the shift, its on the R Shift and now I know why I was struggling!

Whats happened to the keyboard support? Did you QA it for this build, it doesn't seem to work for the menu and the game stalls on the first level. 

Some good investigation overall coming through in the GYM's.

What is noticeable is that there's alot to balance within this project and the proffessional in me suggests fixing or tightening up what you have because the core experience is missing the mark.

Alot of work here, can there can be a game to have fun with but right now it might be wise to tighten up the ship.

Odd issues with respawn logic.

Would also suggest spending time with the cameras as there's alot of inconsistencies on how you are wanting to work with those.

The jump+dash combination feels somewhat hampered by the cooldown and when demonstrated in the GYM's theres a feeling that the cooldown is impacting the rythm that I think you might be after. If thats not the case then the metrics and space used for the GYM scenario's might be built to the wrong scale.

There is just something so elegantly polished about the 3Cs setup right now. If the values are centralised, though, they don't feel it without the visual properties of the character also being centralised too. At this point, Davy's is winning me over with the googly eyes ... 

Davy: well organised gym, but I'd have to agree with Nick. Difficulty is rough, longest jump doesn't feel comfortable, and it leaves me with a little concern that, although there's a great game at the heart of this, you're not quite there yet in understanding it.

Hoikei: Watch out for the gameplay effects of visuals. Your particles and screen overlay cloud the player's vision on the gas zone: a very nice touch (personally I prefer it over the damage that it also does) but you have to be aware of how that affects difficulty. Could be a very powerful LD ingredient used in the right way!

Blizzard zones are a bit tougher ... now that the character is feeling so good to play, it's apparent that it just isn't fun to be going slowly. It's inhibiting the player, but is it actually more challenging to them if they complete the level slowly? Think about what skills the player has to employ to pass it - if it's just a relative adjustment of their judgement, then once you're in the blizzard, the game is just less fun, and not more challenging ... think about another skill, like maybe timing that could be incorporated with the blizzard.

Radiation is similarly tricky as an LD ingredient. Less so, because affecting only the dash/jump means that it's like having two sets of metrics to remember - there's a challenge there (because the speed stays the same, so its not like the whole character shifts) but it'll all come down to how you use it - popping in and out of radiation clouds is going to be a challenge of your awareness and memory!

Tudor: Work with the team to get the aesthetics levelled up a little bit. Try and lock down some clear indication of different platform archetypes so players can learn them - this is the "falling" hazard, this is the "patrolling" hazard, this is the "floaty" hazard, etc.

Landing page needs a little love – add ambient.

Build info page was a nice addition.

Overall, hard to quickly assess what the final 3C’s model will be as I think based on play they ‘feel’ differently?

I had to learn that I had to ‘hold down’ the dash to get it to work, wasn’t signposted very well or was it intuitive. I was sat here thinking how this game might play with 2 cooldowns – one for each dash (left/right). Not quite sure what value it brings with just the one.

Both ‘styles’ of main PC in the way look in both Davvy’s Hokei’s levels offer a very different impression and both would serve the needs of the player. Showed my 5 year-old daughter and she liked them both,…

Davvy’s character needs to blink,…

Both characters would look rather nice if the headpiece (flower) spun around on descent.

Davvy’s Level

18m large gap jump I really can’t do… not quite sure why,.. I think it’s a combination of how the jump function actually feedbacks to the player when I learn to work out what that pixel perfect jump is to launch the player.

I really like the VFX air current – need to work on scale on the emitter (looks squashed) but there's A LOT this game can have building the level design around this one feature alone. I would like to see more ideas with this in combination of Hokei’s hazards.

Respawn logic – Placement in some of the spike setups aren't correctly added.

On player death you aren't locking the controller commands, I can spam buttons and move straight away. Would advise holding the player on the respawn otherwise it feels to loose and in more precarious setups the player will die down to input.

Thought about having the dash on cooldown on respawn?

Hokei

Really interesting GYM’s – maybe the execution on some examples are a tad too hard to complete or I can abuse the moving platform hazards to vault into locations where I shouldn’t be 😉

Respawn logic can be skipped. I would look at making sure that the volume of the gate is slightly higher so there's more chance of the player passing through the gate when in midair.

Would like to see the VFX air current LD ingredient to feature in ALL Gym’s that have hazards.

Timing and player feedback, esp taking health away and giving health back need to be balancing a little to facilitate the players needs.

Restoring health needs to be a better curve on replenish, currently it dosent flow over time.

Tudor

On player death the camera zooms in and stays locked until I quit the level.

Understandable, you joined the project late but I found the distribution of setups not separated enough as the respawn logic isnt helping test anything.

Final direction for the team.

Moving forward, you have a very organic feeling main player character. From a level design POV there's not much going on in the GYM’s to demonstrate ‘slopes’. Would HIGHLY recommend investigating a set of rules to build with.

Really like the effort gone on in the project page here. Very welcoming at onboarding the player. GJ!

Possible screenshot of in-game needed?