* Don't start with the "Level Room" and "Interactive Level Select" BS, please ... there's MUCH bigger things to focus on, that's not going to bring you any benefits

* Need to revisit the gym level and the metrics, because this is just ALL off by a major factor

* Figure out what is comfortable to do and note this in the Design Site. Make sure to note the distances, arcs, and shapes

* Figure out what is horrible, not fun, and annoying. Note this down as well, as clearly as you can.

* Then READ THE DESIGN SITE before making anything!

* Find your best examples of levels and use those as templates for the others. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel and stop spamming ideas with no design flow (it's obvious in the end results)

* I literally only finished one level (Level 9). There's all the makings and pieces of a fun game here, no more implementation or variable tweaking necessary! At this point, it's all down to using the LD flow properly.

Level 1:

* Weird glitch with the background changing colour?

* Basic idea and the metrics are ALL wrong. Solution figured out but I can't land jumps, character keeps slipping everywhere (and it isn't the 3Cs that are the issue, its the level)

* Get your distances sorted. Revisit your metrics if need be - balance for comfortable landings and smooth jumping.

Level 2:

* Trying to bounce from one trampoline to the other when the trampoline above is in the way feels HORRIBLE

* Clever idea but the solution is a little obscure

* Able to put myself in an unwinnable scenario: DO NOT DO THIS. If you INSIST on allowing this to happen you need a quick reset, but it would be far better to simply NEVER ALLOW THE PLAYER TO DO THIS.

Level 3:

* What's the challenge here?

* Feels MASSIVELY inconsistent with the previous levels, and with the previously developed examples. Consider limits on how many diamonds, but also think about "what does the player have to think about here?". This is a level from a different (less interesting) game

* Metrics are, again, off - landing on trampolines without enough vertical space to stomp, missing diamonds even when stomping precisely ...

* Serious slow-down (diamonds?)

Level 4:

* Metrics WAY off. Pulling back on jumps everywhere.

* Again, none of the path-finding challenge that previous examples gave

Level 5:

* A little more like previous levels, but too many diamonds and not enough of a clear line to run. This game should be more like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, less like a bonus room in Super Mario Bros.

* More unwinnable scenarios: movable platforms can cover breakables

Level 6:

* Getting closer to the core, this one felt okay.

* Trampoline bouncing was not smooth - little nudges would make it better. WORK. ON. THOSE. METRICS.

Level 7:

* Clever idea, nice and simple (maybe a little too simple, could do with more of a "twist")

* But rendered annoying by the jumping and spacing feeling wrong

* Is it ever going to work, stacking trampolines like that? Make rules for what works and what doesn't. Maybe trampolines should always be staggered?

Level 8:

* If you fall from the first platform, you can't get back up to the button ... this is basic stuff, folks, come on ...

Level 9:

* Praise be thy level designer, I had fun on this one

* Felt like it was just introducing a nice concept, though

It was a courageous choice not to put the keyboard controls on your interface and neglect the controller support for your menu. It was very brave to risk the player quitting as they did not have adequate 'in build' support. It doesn't matter what content you have waiting for the player if they don't have the means to get off the main screen. 

 You really, desperately need someone to play your game and give you feedback. What IS the first question that people ask when they try to play a game for the first time? How do I play this? What are you doing to cater to your player? How are you helping them to get into your world? DONT MAKE A TUTORIAL but have some empathy for the people who have chosen to take the time to play your game. Anticipate their needs.  

It all very pretty but that won't mean anything if you don't make your game for the player. Oh and the player is not a member of your team either. So don't help the playtesters and get ready for feedback that will help your game to be more accessible. 

There is a solid game in here somewhere but you need to not be blinded by confirmation bias - it will kill all your good work.

Hey, thanks for the update.

Ok, so 1st build of the block and theres a need to tighten up on the direction as the current content can be confusing to follow.

The new GYM levels are great to see but they are encroaching fully finished levels rather than servicing the needs of the metrics or what the player can be doing within the space.

Some of the new levels presented feel over developed right now, the use of screen space here is a big issue for me as there isnt a balance of space, work/ideas are shoehorned in right now and that clutters the screen.

Still concerns about the upper horizontal space, camera impacts gameplay so a more thought needs to go into the distribution of ingredients might get impacted by the way the scale works in relation to the camera and player position.

 You might want to investigate the time used to setup the golden path, right now there feels like far too many steps and an element of frustration learning the puzzle path.Find the right balance here.

Overall, metrics throughout the examples presented needs to be ‘tightened up’. There's a nod towards supporting the features whilst the frame work of the layout misses a lot of context that’s needed from a metric focused GYM.

The overall 3C’s feels a little ‘floaty’ which causes many issues trying to traverse in the examples setup to demo causing the player to fight with the precision speed and response to jump to the next setup. This forms a ‘skiddy’ feel to the players position whilst adapting to the agency of the timer and level setup. You need to addressed this aspect to the navigation and basic input to the responses. More balancing required.

The biggest issue with the vertical slice is the lack of function to the ‘Timed’ events. I think from observation it’s the collectibles. Whilst the base design and concept has a core loop to run with the logic is not locked down. Might be the menu systems or the general blueprint but would advise the project to fix this as it really impacts the overall experience.

There's a small level select that used the stomp feature – that was great!

The 3 door level select, whilst enjoyed, the above statement is needed more over the current selection established. It connects the player to the main USP.

The stomp mechanic was great to play with (3C’s – esp camera liked!), in fact there's more potential and investigation to be had with this feature which in an ideal world should be serviced in the GYM. The current GYM for this feature is trying to display setups but there's a big design question still unanswered and that’s to do with the breakable volumes.

For this feature to ‘really’ work there needs to be more reward on the feedback of actually smashing an object. I would love to see large cubic mass that the player demolishes over something that looks like a flimsy plank. Look into a way of getting those boxes to really explode on contact.

Investigate the material types more, I could quite happily learn the levels rules of play where an object might take a few stomps to bust open. Would definitely consider this as a set of parameters to work with as it will give you a few extra building blocks for the level design puzzle designs.

 There's an odd audio placeholder that I think is triggered if I spam the function for stomp?, its not needed (or change the sound please!)

There's a GYM with environmental hazards. Turrets and I think ‘search lights’? Anyway, there looks to be an underdeveloped features here, which is a shame as these could bring value to the overal project but in their current iteration lack functionality to be embedded into the final project.

Things to clean up!

Control scheme – pick one and stick with it! I played the game with a controller and there was no player facing design to onboard the player, please fix.

Test and triple test the menu flow please. There's a bug through the navigation that’s locking up the build that requires a force quit to exit out.

One last thing, whilst there's an experience forming here in this build, which is appreciated, there's clearly a lot more important focus on tightening up the core 3C’s and developing that stomp some more.

As for the ‘bonus level’ level that could be a potential direction for the project but there's clearly more work to be done on gameplay until we can build upon this next block.

Week 7 Feedback

General:

No devlog?

While I appreciate you cutting back the theatrics (more on that below), the new menu doesn't have controller support ...

There's a really, really nice game here - but there's also a major concern. Kenny's ranged attack turrets aren't pretty, but they're functional and yet they're not present in Andrei or Lucas's gym levels. Andrei and Lucas have centralised the gameplay across their levels, but the characters still feel notably different, making it impossible for the project to proceed.

Make sure you've settled on ONE 3Cs setup for the main character (I would propose you stick closer to Andrei's). If you can wrap that up, and the LD Guide is solid enough, this project could be a brilliant little platform game next block - but if not, it isn't really a cohesive prototype of a single game.

Kenny:

Not really sure where the time is going for you. Good, functional job with the shooting, but the camera didn't seem to do anything. No real exploration of what to do with the guns either - hopefully there's some exploration in the LD guide.

Andrei:

Particle effect is WAY over the top on the stomp. I can show you how to feed player data into a Niagara Particle System if you'd like ...

Were these challenges always here? Was I just prevented from finding them because your gym is impossible to navigate until you master the controls? Please lay things out more sensibly! People might be trying to use this stuff for reference!

In general, I hate hate HATE the destructible purple blocks, but you've got some really neat ideas here that feel almost in line with Lucas. The character feels very Super Meat Boy-but-heavy and, ridiculous particle effects aside, the stomp feels satisfying when crunching through destructibles.

Lucas:

I TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID THE THEATRICS ARE STILL THERE.

Your "doors" level is not intuitive to work with. Your collectible counter doesn't update the target amount properly in the second room. The bounce pad in your third room reads far too much like a button, to the point it's very confusing. The slopes are glitchy when you stomp on them, and the moving platforms are really awkward if you stand under them.

All of this flash and style, and there's still all these little mistakes, both oversights in implementation and bad design choices. Don't get cocky. Focus on what's important.

The main character feels okay - fast and loose. Not as satisfying to control as Andrei's, I don't think?

Finally found the sandbox easter egg. It's cute, and very well made, but your LD Guide, Learning Log, BPs and Playtesting documentation had better be absolutely perfect for you to have found the time to mess around.

Overall it (still) feels like you missed the point of PRE-production and started making your own little game. Please learn a lesson from this for the future. You're a part of a team - and a good one for this block. Had you spent more time collaborating with them, this project would have been light years ahead of where it is now.