QA to a better build

This week we got a new test build into testing, populated our pirate levels, solved our pirate boss issue, and tweaked our build to adjust for player usability.

Starting our week, I spent a good amount of time working on our tutorial storyboard. I built it out to allow it to be plugged in to any level, so long as it has our basic mechanics. I decided to have it be told from the perspective of the librarian talking to the player, as I thought it would be a good way to help introduce the players to the idea of a library. We are currently toying with the idea of doing two tutorials, one for two players and one for one player, which should be pretty easy with a few small adjustments on my part. We will be developing a small single player level collection to let players get familiar with the game on their own, but we will be pushing multiplayer more then heavily.

I did some tests on how players would react to a two player throwing build this week to get some insight into our game's strategy. Currently, with our game having a fast character and a throwing one, strategy is much more old school. You plan out your moves carefully, working with the data that we give you, to determine how to beat the level. By giving both players the ability to throw, strategy is much more dynamic as it allows players to improvise on the fly. Players have more fluidity in their ability, rather then rigidity. I was split on how this would go down in testing, as I can see benefits to both sides of the coin. On the one hand, our current build rewards planning and a deep understanding of the game. On the other, our game is dynamic enough where having the fluidity could be a huge benefit to them. So I took it to testing. And the results were overwhelming. Players communicated more, strategized more, and generally were in even higher spirits in the 2 player throwing build. I haven't been able to quantify what exactly made it work but it worked very very well.

To fix some issues in play testing, we also increased the size of our pickup and throw radius as players would get confused with the ranges of it. We believe that once we get our new UI and UX in, though, that this issue will resolve itself.

I was able to portray my vision for the boss level in our design meeting, as I was able to deconstruct the model and set it up for my team in my vision, which the team was very receptive to. 

All in all, a very productive week