Week 12 - Polish and UI

Where the game sits: 

This week primarily focused on creating a functioning game that could be played through, including being able to restart and select levels.

What’s new:

The major update for this week sees all five levels implemented in the game. These new levels have been created based on the level designs displayed in the level blocking devlog. Each level has a doorway at the end of it, which loads the following level. Another new addition to the game this week is background music, which plays upon the commencement of the first level. The audio source also continues across levels. The music used in this game was created by Alperomeresin[1]. Another addition to the game this week is the creation of an introductory story, comprising of a few sentences, setting the scene for the game. This story scene plays when the player clicks on the “Play” button on the title screen, which plays this sequence before loading the first level.

A few UI components have been created this week, the first of which is a pause menu. When the player hits tab, the game will pause and display a screen consisting of three buttons, a resume, exit to title, and quit. A restart screen was also added to the game. When the player’s lives run out or they fall into a pit, the restart screen will show, giving the player three options, restart, exit to title, or quit. The restart button will restart the player at the start of the level that they died on, while the exit to title and quit buttons do as their names suggest. A Level select scene was also implemented this week. From the title screen, the player can select the ‘level select’ button. This scene consists of 5 buttons, one for each level, as well as a return to title button.

There are also a few minor polish details that have been implemented, such as a trail render that appears when the player dashes and particle effects whenever the bullets collide with something. Additionally, enemy hit animations have been added. When an enemy is hit with the correct bullet, an animation plays in which the enemy flashes white, before returning to another state (moving, idle). 

Visualisation:

Level select screen:

Pause menu:

Restart screen:

Cutscene:

Enemy hit/player dash/Bullet particles: 

Testing and feedback:

There were several points of feedback during testing. Firstly, players felt that the damaging the enemies required colour-coded bullets was not particularly easy to grasp. To combat This, a future addition introducing some sort of textbox or visual explanation of this mechanic will be created. Another piece of feedback was that the camera too close, which prevented the player from having an adequate understanding of their surroundings. Testing also revealed that the music kept playing after returning to the title screen, which is something that will be changed shortly. Additionally, players felt that the game would benefit from a keyboard button that can be used to restart the level, preventing the need to use the mouse between restarts. Players also suggested that less health for the enemies would improve the game, as in some areas, the tight platforming makes it too difficult to effectively kill enemies. One reviewer also found that the controller square and circle buttons were reversed on level 2, which will need to be fixed in a future update. Players also suggested lengthening the tiles in the pit falls, as they cut off before the player dies.

Future updates:

Along with the improvements suggests by player testing this week, there will be increased aesthetic and instructional decorations added to this game, increasing the enjoyment of playing the game.

[1]Alperomeresin, (2023). The Final Boss Battle. Available at: https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-the-final-boss-battle-158700/