CAGD 270 - 2D Mega Man Level v2 - 3/22/2023

  What went right during the playtest is that the player was able to beat the level without struggling on it and being stuck on the same thing for too long. What went wrong is that there were a few spots where the player was set up in a way where it was very difficult for them to pass those enemies without taking any damage from any one of the enemies. I can improve this next time by playing through the game multiple times and seeing if the enemies fit into the spot that they are in and whether or not they could overwhelm the player at any point. The main thing that went wrong was the last part of the level where many play testers were saying that it was a little difficult and that they were struggling a bit on that part. Another area where they thought there were too many enemies was the long straight away where I had enemies on the floor chasing you and enemies on the roof shooting at you.

    The challenges were presented at an appropriate point and it was not too much for the player, for the most part. At the end of the game where you have to jump on falling platforms and avoid the enemy's shot, some players were struggling with that part and many had to keep restarting that area. I guess when I went and played through the game the last time I must have gotten lucky and so I thought that it was an easy thing to beat and that almost everyone will fly through it. To improve on that part of the level I was given suggestions to either replace the falling blocks with solid blocks or have fewer enemies shooting at you. I can improve the straight away with the enemies by just removing the enemies that shoot at you from above or just only have one of them in the middle.

    The path of the level was very obvious and when a player was presented with the option to go either up top or down low the path was mainly laid out to go up top and if you were to fall you would end up fighting the enemies down low. I did not want to make the game super complicated and also make a maze like level where the player could choose like ten different pathways and confuse the player. So to keep it simple I had one path and every play tester knew exactly which way to go. One of the positive feedbacks I got from the level was that they liked how it was very straight forward and you always knew where to go. Also, they liked how some of the enemies were completely skippable if you were to just not fall off the falling platforms. 

    Another thing that many play testers seemed to like was that there were a few areas where you just had to sprint and not get hit by an enemy and if you did you would fall off the platforms and be forced to fight more enemies than you would have to. I really liked this idea because it also allowed the player to just fight the extra enemies if they wanted to or if they were able to make it without falling then they were able to skip some enemies and not have to lose any health and risk dying and respawning later on in the level. This way the level can seem a little bit easier later on and the player is not stressing too much about their health.