New Prototype
The New Prototype
About a month ago I announced I would put Bamsing on the shelf for now and find a more suitable project for the resources available to me. I have been working hard on a new prototype ever since.
WIP from the new prototype! Guess the setting? #SubstancePainter #gameart #indiedev pic.twitter.com/w497eV7J2z
— Pontus Lindgren (@happypwn) 13 juni 2016
The game is a Puzzle-Platformer set in the future where you take control of a character on a space adventure. A lot of stuff is still very much in the idea stage but the core mechanics of the game has been implemented and tested.
I had the priviledge of getting some professional testing help from Player Research who help test games for several Triple-A studios and other big name studios in the industry. Their focus is on helping developers to find ways to remove barriers that prevents the player from experiencing the game in the best way possible.
They want to help developers find intuitive ways to teach players how to play the game and also help developers identify any problematic usage of iconography, colors, sounds and more that might confuse the player or detract from the experience.
Buh-bye Brighton, hello Göteborg!
— Player Research (@PlayerResearch) 19 juni 2016
We're headed to @SwedenGameArena to chat to #swegame teams about games user research!#GamesUR #gamedev
I had a lot of thoughts and questions going into the test by Player Research and coming out of it I had gotten my concerns validated. Which was very valuable in the way that I had gotten confirmation that my thoughts and ideas about my game were correct, at least from a user experience perspective, which can be very hard to tell on your own or with your (probably biased) closests co-workers. And there was also a lot of feedback on details, which after fixing, I am convinced will raise my player retention in the end.
Also, it was also very valuable to watching @seb_long and @harvoldo work. It gave me insight into what perspective user researchers have when they evaluate games. This perspective is something that I as a game developer am now starting to use, and I believe it has already made me a better game developer!
Whats next?
Currently there is a lot of polish needed to be made on the game, I want to experiment with some more mechanics to make the game a little less one dimensional and I also have to make a plan for the coming weeks. The last few weeks I have only been focusing on getting as much as possible into the prototype before the Player Research-test and now I can finally breathe a little bit and plan ahead for whats to come.
So, real soon I’ll be pumping out a lot more content regarding the prototype!
Dont miss the next post!
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