This devlog will be a debrief of the first play testing session.
So far, two major gameplay bugs were brought to my attention: the escape (ESC) key quitting the game to the main menu instead of closing a screen, and the lack of a proper HUD making tracking ammo count and which weapon is equipped difficult.
The first bug was a debugging design choice for myself, but I hadn't anticipated it being an issue. The players instinctively would hit the ESC key to close the shop or inventory menus, quitting the current game, which caused much frustration. I had intended for the player's to just hit the same menu toggle key instead of ESC.
The second bug was an oversight on my part. I thought the minimalist HUD was actually a good idea. Here's a before and after comparison of the HUD:
I certainly believe that extensive play testing is key to video game being good. Based on my experience playing and now building games, the player base usually knows what will work best. My goal is to incorporate as much feedback as I can.
The QOL and other suggestions I received are as follows:
- Health / Ammo replenishment location on the map
- Mouse scroll wheel used to swap weapons
- Slow down the main horde of enemies
- Starting menu scene
- Pause the game when menus are open
- Quest mode, not just wave survival
A static location on the map where the player can rearm and/or heal is a decent idea for testing, as it eliminates the need to use the shop aside from buying new weapons.
One of the primary complaints was that trying to view and utilize the shop or inventory menu was quite difficult because the game didn't pause, forcing the player to divide their attention running away from the enemy and utilizing any shop functions. This also ties into the issues with the HUD: the player had to open the inventory menu to view what weapon was equipped, forcing them to divide their attention again.
It was mentioned to me that trying to press the weapon swap keys (1/2/3) while running away from enemies is quite difficult, and that utilizing the mouse's scroll wheel would be vastly more ergonomic. I certainly agree with this.
Another issue was that all the enemies move quit fast, which is not typical of a zombie horde. It was suggested that I make the bulk of the horde slow with a few others being fast, which would swarm the player and force them to prioritize those enemies first.
The biggest complaint with the shop menu was that there wasn't enough time in between waves to view and utilize it. The solution proposed was to create a separate scene in between waves where the player could rearm and heal. Furthermore, in the future, that scene could also be used to give the player quests to complete. In traditional HvZ, both the humans and zombies need to fulfill various quests and both sides have lose/win conditions. After some consideration, this quest mode is what I want the main game to be, with the wave survival mode being a mini game and/or a separate game mode.
All that said, I believe the first play testing session went very well. I learned a lot from my testers, and they identified many things for me to fix/change/implement. I have already started work on that, and I'm enjoying the new challenges that arise.
Thanks for reading!
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