The Tuesday before spring break, we had alpha playtests in GPL. We received valuable feedback from developers from the Fissure, Shroud, Solar Rim and Cross Stone teams, as well as some of the ATEC professors.
From the anonymous polls we gathered from the playtests
• The co-op element and co-op puzzles are the strongest features of the game
• Art style is likeable, player character animations look great
• Combat is not satisfying and feels out of place
• Most of the level’s layout is good, but there are a lot of empty spaces
Points made by professors participating in the playtests
• Strongest elements of the game are the co-op puzzles and co-op element
• Combat is very disjointed: unsure of combat’s place within the level
• Combat is not a co-op experience- too isolated between players
• The game is a puzzle game, creative director just isn’t aware of it yet
• The level design has improved significantly since the first milestone playthrough, but there are still empty areas where player interest lags
• Attack animations are designed the wrong way. Currently, physics feel like they are designed for the animations. It needs to be the other way around, with the animations being designed for the physics.
One of the professors suggested that combat should be de-emphasized, polished in time for beta, or taken out entirely. I’ve never realized before just how difficult it is to get real time combat feeling right. Not only do the characters attack animations have to reflect the velocity and movement of their attacks, but the collision and feedback of the attack have to match as well.
Furthermore, our entire approach to coding and creating attack animations is wrong. Animations need to be designed for physics, not the other way around. Currently, we design physics for animations, which is the wrong approach. While the animations themselves look great, the physics behind them don’t quite match up- keeping combat from obtaining that visceral element it needs to be satisfying.
Over spring break, I came up with a plan of action to improve on our alpha shortcomings, most notably the combat physics, the cooperative elements of combat, and empty spaces within the level. The plan of action involved setting up mini-playtest dates to test enhanced physics and achieve the right amount of realism in combat, as well as making modifications to the existing animations to match the physics.
Despite this plan of action, I worried that it wouldn’t be enough to get Comrade Quest to the level it needed to be at for beta. With a little over three weeks till beta, I feared that we wouldn’t get the physics honed in time. There was also the matter of getting the sounds properly synced with the attacks, and having enough time to modify the old animations, as well as create new ones.
After spring break, the Comrade Quest team met for GPL on Tuesday. I asked my team mates if they had read the action plan at all over the break. They had, and mirroring the gut feeling I had in my stomach, they didn’t believe that the action plan would be enough to get the game at a polished enough level for beta.
However CQ’s level designer had the brilliant idea of replacing real time combat with a turn-based RPG system, similar to the one utilized in the Paper Mario games. She proposed a simple system, with just attack, defend, and Communist summon commands. I thought the idea was brilliant- it sidestepped all the problems aimed at making the combat visceral. She also proposed that each player would select commands for their own character, but players would have to select the same commands if they wanted to summon a Communist leader- this would make the combat a cooperative experience.
Post commandeered by the US Claire Force
C.E. LEWOCZKO 