Week 10 (Nov 18 – Nov 25)

This week, the team prepared for the in-lab Beta code presentation. As mentioned in last week’s next steps, we conducted playtests and internal reviews focusing on the UI components of our game. We moved away from the basic non-diegetic floating text, and more towards abstract, graphical representations of them. An example of this is how we updated the stamina UI, such that it is now representations of the different phases of the moon, which correspond to how much light the player has left.

We also added a few more functional screens to create a more cohesive game experience. Originally, when players loaded into the game, they started flying right away. Now, we have introduced a start screen menu that doesn’t start the game until player’s actually click Start. Additionally, we added Respawn screens that further restrict the game from starting abruptly when the player is not ready.Some other screens include the Pause screen, where players can choose to go back to the Start Screen, or Quit the game all together.

As per some of the feedback we received from the playtesting sessions, we are going to continue to polish and refine the game for the Gold Code deliverable. We want to make sure that all aspects of the user experience are met. An example of this is implementing a Settings screen, or functionality within the Pause Menu to allow players to customize the sensitivity of their mouse. From our playtesting feedback, the mouse sensitivity being too high was one of the most common comments we received.