Playtest Notes

Playtest 9 - Nicky pt2

likes the audio
noticed the looking up and down right away
would like to see a room or something when looking below apartment
apartment seems too large for human scale

confused why you can't throw when aiming far away
realized later that he was too far away

thought the aiming indicator changing red matched the target on the ground so that's what was meant to happen
wants aesthetic to match more - would prefer more flat textures at the beginning to match later buildings

can easily tell what paint is equipped

buildings at the end of the first level don't collide with paint - check collisions on all props and buildings
should probably make camera looking up/down reset more quickly

footsteps are pretty annoying with multiple enemies nearby - attenuation settings are probably too far

still thinks there is fall damage

details are aesthetically different on some of the props - don't match buildings and stuff

unclear if dying was because of out of bounds or fall damage

enemies won't move to a new distraction while they are investigating a distraction

used quick paint almost the entire time

don't know why he's collecting high quality paints

need a better checkpoint when collecting bucket on awning

camera has trouble when up against a building

expecting to keep bouncing higher up to terminal height when bouncing off paint
need to make it clear that fall damage isn't a thing

can't see next platform to go to at the end of second level

paints like crazy on the wall at the end

liked the new paint effects - almost feels too watery

expected enemies to be distracted by paint on the ground even if they see it after it's been thrown

Playtest 8 - Rachel Blue
tried out controls while in the house
liked being able to aim in 3D while moving cursor in 2D
likes the particle effect trail

switched off white paint accidentally before first enemy and wasn't sure how to switch back
tried to run by enemy and got killed, then realized she needed to crouch and hide

tried to jump while crouched and got killed
liked that the particle effect for paint color, found it easy to see

didn't understand quick paint tutorial
need to disable aiming hitting tutorials

had trouble aiming along walking plane
wants to have aiming locked to axis

thought there might be an interaction button with the paint pickups
footsteps still happen while crouched

seems kind of unfair that enemies can move in 3D space while you only have 2D space to avoid them

didn't realize sound was important - thought enemy was seeing her when he was actually hearing her

thought white paint would distract permanently

quick throw tutorial wasn't good enough, didn't realize she could throw paint without aiming?

thought save point placement was good

wishes she could move camera to see better

didn't realize that paint distraction was a sound thing, thought it would be a permanent visual distraction for enemies that saw it as they walked by

figured out the distraction radius for paint later on

tried hard to get all the paint buckets, seemed to think they were required

didn't remember that you could hit platforms to move them around, need to repeat during tutorial section to make sure it's obvious

should try to put enemy patrols in the background to have them easier to see in spite of camera

noticed cursor changing red when going into the background, thought distance indicator was a bug

did a lot more preparation work when playing, was more patient than most players

could potentially make quick throw the way to aim along your path, while quickthrowing maybe push left and right on stick to increase and decrease projectile velocity

that's a scary jump into the void - couldn't see platform on first long speed jump

would prefer to have more control in the air for big jumps

had trouble figuring out perspective in space while in air, couldn't figure out where she was going to land

thought as you bounced up the platforms you would keep bouncing higher and higher

liked how stuff was introduced over time

liked throwing paint a lot and seeing the impact she made on the world

potentially would have liked a dynamic hint system for players stuck on different areas

move destination a lot closer on first bounce tutorial to make it easy to pass

maybe have first easy bounce tutorial that's possible to skip, then second tutorial where you fall a long way to teach the momentum mechanic that isn't possible to skip (to teach mechanic better)

Playtest 7 - Z (Serenity Forge)

comparisons to inside
called bounce paint - thought he had to bounce on it from a height
need tutorial for quick throw - using aiming all the time

difficulty aiming in 3d but only moving in 2d
can see why we have 3d mechanics in the platformer
need a tutorial for the quick throw

just speed painting by everyone

having trouble with depth perception

figured out quick paint later on his own

"so many buttons"

used quick throw constantly in front of him so he always had paint effects

likes the lenient save points

kinda weird the red one just erases the blue one

when you have to aim it slows down the pace of the game
wants to be able to quickly aim on line with himself

distracted by people in the background of the level

didn't have the first momentum jumping section which forced him to use the bounce paint to jump, so never learned that he could bounce off of it

thought maybe he could wall jump

in general:
lots of strong points
as a 2d platformer, more action compared to other games
good amount of stealth
good amount of 3d interaction, sort of hard to understand what is tying it all together
painting mechanic is good and unique
currently feels to crowded in terms of mechanics
you have so much power as a character that the stealth elements don't make a lot of sense

publishers care much more about the fantasy the game fulfills and its presentation than how the mechanics are

Playtest 6 - Chris Floyd

Immediately figured out he can just go left or right.

Compared to inside.

Tries to figure out how the jump works. "Feels sort of sluggish."

Feels like he loses less control when changing direction in the air.

Read out the controls to figure out the platform.

Figured out how to throw and is trying to learn what the projectile is for.

Thought the green sphere was a placeholder for an explosion.

Not much feedback from the AI. Wants to be able to see the AI by manipulating the camera so you can track enemies better.

Read the pain and tested the waters by jumping on it to figure out what the bounce paint did.

Might want checkpoints to be visible so the player knows when they have reached one.

The speed paint only lasted a short amount of time.

Enjoyed the ragdoll.

Unsure of the yellow platforms purpose in the chase part of the tutorial.

To much to do in the chase section. Have to little time to switch between paints and the importance of speed paint is lessened.

Level 2:

The visual indicator has to be a bit sharper you are detected at the end of platforms.

Does not want to bother aiming.

Would prefer to switch buttons as a trigger button vs the depad. The switching paint while running is tough so as a designer might not want to have many paints involved at one time.

Reminds him of Planet Alpha.

Wants a line for where you are walking in order for you to be able to throw paint easier.

Figured out he can't attack.

Just ran past the crouch section.

Recommends looking at limbo and inside's visual cues to help the player understand where they can go and why.

Guessed on combining the paints to get a combined effect after dieing a few times in the speed/jump pain section.

Thoughts on the preparation for the second level:

He thought it was not to overwhelming. He thought that the fact he thought to combine paints at the end was a good sign that the level was able to teach the concepts.

Does not realize that he is throwing paint until to late in the tutorial. Want to consider how we are communicating paint as a core idea in our game.

The patforms you hit to move are not intuitive and work mechanically but do not fit in the world particularly well.

The tutorial prompts were clear and he thought that it taught him everything he needed to know.

Felt like the blue paint would last longer.

Do you want to have the player have to watch AI patterns before proceeding with the level.

Desires the white paint to last a little longer. Have to use the tools you are given to precisely so it does not feel like you have much of a choice as a player.

The choice was unclear for the first part of the second level. The AI on the above platform was distracting from the bottom puzzle.

Thought the pain was a cool core mechanic but was interested to see more use of pain and more mechanics with paint. The paint feel a bit limited even though they are effective.

Spray continuously instead of throwing out bombs of pain.

Vessel is a game that would be good to look at for how to spray paint.

Change the reticle when it is online with you so you know when it will be in your path. Wanted the reticle to sort of get stuck a bit when you move it in line with your player.

Biggest criticism or challenge is whether the effects can be a bit more over the top so they have a little more umf and have more of a pain impact on the game.

The mechanics fall a little flat.

Paint ideas:

A paint that puts a hole in walls so you can walk through them.

A paint that changes your state.

A paint to change forms instead of a crouch button.

Like the layered mechanics in the bounce paint and how you can bounce paint balls on it.

Thinks the game was fun. Grasped the concepts fairly easily. When you finalize a game you polish the movement but might not be at this stage right now. The level feels a little fudgey which makes him want to rush through the level. Suggests making the AI more predictable in order for the player to have a bit more knowledge and may take the level slower.

No sense of being heard vs being scene. Wondering if there was coordination between the AI. The way the AI work kind of added to the slop factor so may be tweaked a bit to reduce that.

Sensors that alert AI may be a cool feature in the future.

The pacing felt good might want to add small breathers to add icing to the cake. Felt that the challenge went up gradually through the level except the end of the first level which was a bit much.

Expect paint to cover over paint.

Playtest 5 - Jake Randall

very quickly figured out aiming with new reticle

immediately got through first tutorial section
distracted enemy right away
saw the trigger and intuitively threw at the button prompt
suggested something that you want to aim at from the beginning

add a ui element to indicate when something is too far to throw

tried to just use the right stick to look around, didn't hit aim
maybe make look around be with right stick

switched paints and threw right away
didn't know what it did

wanted a prompt to tell you to jump once you threw the bounce paint
would like a little pop up to tell you what the paint did using text

asked for a small description of paint when you switch to it

was using aiming to check below him

wanted to try to get enemy to permanently look the other direction, or at least look for longer

didn't get the noise mechanics at first
thinks that enemies turning around quickly after being distracted is because they are alerted by falling - should make enemies spend longer distracted, give people a bigger window so they can tell it's actually doing something
make them less sensitive to noise/you and take longer to notice you

maybe a little difficult for a tutorial level

would like more explanation for the different paint types
describing controls and how they're laid out

Playtest 4 - John Christensen

hit start immediately, didn't look at help menu

not sure what paint does
thinks paint might be a shield type thing
not figuring out how to move right stick to aim

not sure if he missed something in first section and has to jump up

wasn't aware that the ball was under his control - couldn't tell that you could aim

wanted to try fighting the enemy - looked like the player had a bat or sword or something
wanted to see what would happen

confused about not being able to throw far - need an indicator

took a bit to realize it was only side scrolling
thought he could maybe go into the background

figured out red was a different projectile when he fell
throwing red on wall at first
took a bit to throw on ground then figured out it was bouncy - seemed excited when he finally figured it out

broken wall section definitely better, had to stop a bit and actually stealth by the guy

definitely need to teach quick throw

confused by yellow platform at the end during "chase"
thinks he can use the platform to jump over the final wall
missed out on chase by jumping over guy

only time he didn't know what he was doing was the first tutorial section

kind of a happy accident discovering paint
felt like paint discovery wasn't that confusing, but would have saved some confusion
wasn't sure what green radius was at first

suggestion: see someone else pull of the trick using the paint, teaches you in world without needing text

favorite part was being able to plan
liked being able to throw into the background/environment and distract people

didn't understand aiming at all from the beginning

thought first section was a jump puzzle - maybe an arrow indicator to show that you need to move the stick around

Playtest 3 - Evan Reierson
opened help menu to see controls to start out with
pressed random buttons at the beginning and discovered most paint effects right away
thought he might be able to run into the background

new first tutorial extremely confusing, buttons in the wrong place
don't know that paint would move platforms
never learned how to aim, the new first tutorial didn't force him to learn

figured out that speed paint makes m faster by quick throwing onto ground
used jump paint to get out of pit instead

didn't figure out he could distract people with only the basic paint, because he switched paints early on and just tried to throw those

thinks the green circle might be a shield or something - need to make it obvious that it's an audio thing
if people switch to other paints before seeing first distractible enemy, they don't know how to distract people

enjoys running fast and jumping high

need to force player to distract an enemy before they learn about other paints
figured out the distraction paint later by accident

used quick throw the entire time

kinda wanted it to be full 3d movement
mainly wants to be able to run into the background because he can throw paint there

not sure how he feels about camera tilt down - almost wanted it to be more like that permanently

suggested first person - wants to be forced to look around corners and not know what's around him

wants to be able to hold down paint button to paint

wants to be able to move the aiming to the edge of the screen and move the camera further

wanted a little more text to tell you what each paint did

suggested "unlocking" paints to avoid problem of him discovering all paints immediately and not knowing what they did, could give tooltips about the effect of each paint

suggestion: make it so you lose as soon as you are detected/in an enemy's cone of vision, to make the stealth elements much more important

Playtest 2 - Eddy Rogers

Information given was to ignore the art and the lack of music. We did not have a controller for this playtest and used mouse and keyboard.

Eddy has a background of playing games on a competitive level, so he wanted to complete it quickly. Almost always was going forward when he was trying new controls very focused on quickly completing the level. Didn't really care much about the enemy below but did not understand why the platform was in the background. Said that he could not figure out how to get to that platform and was stuck. I translated the control symbols to mouse keyboard control symbols for him and he got it very quickly. Suggested that the platform should first appear in the normal path vs in the background to make it more obvious.

Was able to simply sprint past the second AI by jumping.

At the 3rd enemy he was trying to figure out how to jump throw to distract the AI. Used the projectile view to watch the enemy. Didn't really stop for the enemy to time when it was looking away just tried to keep going past with a jump throw as he was moving.

Fell into the pit and took a little bit to figure out the super jump.

Super jumped so far past the last enemy that it didn't trigger. Super jumped over the end of the level and did not trigger the mural.

When the mural was triggered started spamming paint over it in victory. Restarting the level after completion did not work from the menu.

Had a few suggestion

• Wanted the projectile platform inline with the player for its first appearance
• Wanted to make it so if you jumped on the bounce paint it would launch you as well

Playtest 1 - Nicky Britt (nicky@dusk.games)
immediately presses all buttons tries out combat - hitting, heavy attack still in trying out aiming can't tell to aim at platform to start out with - tutorial needs to be clearer figures out that enemy can be distracted by paint need to fix menu input system need to make it clear that platforms can move need to make aiming ignore tutorials need to make decals not appear on the

first tutorial section: how am i gonna get over the the platform distracted by enemy below seemed like you could distract enemies need to make it more obvious that you need to hit the platform, and to ignore the enemy

distraction controller distraction: trying to make sure the enemy turns in the other direction when distracting enemy tries hitting enemy to see if projectiles knock them out enemy always returns to looking in same direction assuming white thing over head is alert marker not clear if enemies can hear you or not trying to walk in order to get by the enemy might need to make distraction time longer

paint tutorial area: pretty quickly figured out the difference between the paints switch paints, tried throwing it down and realized he could it worked, accidentally put down heavy attack

presumption of fall damage

final running area: distracted by the moving platform, thinks he can hit it to bring it closer

need to disable heavy attack and health bar

guy at the beginning distraction from learning to platform

ok with trying things randomly if checkpoints are pretty often and don't require you to retry the whole thing

scared to jump off platforms because he couldn't see below him at some point he's just gonna start jumping off stuff

need counterplay for different things - another option to getting it perfect or losing

should be more hints about what you should do, or some reactive counterplay if you can't see anything, giving people the chance to react

jump is a little laggy - a split second slow no use for the sword - attacks are distracting (need to disable)

runs by enemy behind the wall

why does the paint appear behind you bounce paint should be directly under you

what's the point of having the normal paint if you can just distract with the bounce paint - add paint canceling out

wants it to be more fast paced and be able to quickly throw down paint as he's doing things

wants platforms to wait a bit before moving immediately

thought debug sphere would turn into something physical now assumes it's an alert

thinks it is/could be fun immediately thinks about metal gear wants to kill the enemies - maybe give people options having the attacks made him want to kill people themes: stealth, you play some sort of contractor trying to paint the town disconnect between why i'm using paint

biggest confusing with tutorials was where to aim - maybe make a target to show you where you need to aim - place button prompt on platform maybe just have an up button in the paint tutorial part

wasn't sure what the bounce paint was gonna do at first having it say bounce paint - he would have eventually tried to do it

heavy attack made him think about ice

after discussion: maybe make right trigger automatically throw it in front of you can see better when holding the trigger down, so generally wants to just hold the button to keep the camera pointed down - maybe want to change the camera angle so you don't need to do that at first thought white bar above AI was health assumed sound was a factor, not just a proximity radius

idea for puzzle: slick paint, run crouch and slide under something to jump over a large gap

would be a good idea to use the light attack to splatter paint in front of you

would want to be able to paint enemies thought maybe he could knock the enemies out with the paint