The First Playable Demo

On April 13th Pause Menu Bar and Cafe in Fitzroy hosted a showcase of local indie games. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to set a deadline and release the demo to the public. While the crunch to finish everything was intense, the result was worth it.

How it went

The public demo was a fantastic experience. Seeing so many people play my game (many of whom had only heard a little about it), was incredibly rewarding. Players were impressed by the amount of work, appreciated the split-screen feature, and enjoyed its goofy style.

What I learnt

Watching the game was just as fun for many as playing it

A surprising number of people enjoyed watching others play, which also helped generate more interest.

Players were more forgiving of bugs than expected

Bugs like enemies spawning in walls were often seen as funny. Most players didn’t notice bugs unless they halted their progress.

Players were less forgiving when they weren’t given clear instructions

I added last-minute prompts for 'melee' and 'swap weapon' controls, but players were still confused about other controls. They disliked not knowing the reload button and wanted the gun to automatically reload when empty.

The hacking minigame frustrated players

I added the unfinished hacking game last minute, placing it at the start next to a locked door. Unfortunately, this backfired, as players found the minigame too confusing and it gave them a bad first impression.

Co-op gameplay was a huge hit

Players had significantly more fun playing in co-op. This has always been a priority for me, as someone who grew up playing co-op games with my siblings.

Feedback

After a great demo, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Controller/Button Prompts

The prompts shouldn’t always be on the screen since players tend to ignore them after a while. They need to appear when players would likely need to use them.

AI could detect players through walls

The first thing every player did was test the controls. Which would unknowingly set off the AI before even proplerly starting the game. People would open the first door in the game, and have multiple enemies waiting there for them, making it feel unfair and like "bad AI".

Hacking Minigame

Needs a complete rework. Until then, it should be removed.

Unclear objectives

Not all objectives had waypoints, which made it unclear where to go and how to complete them. Most people found them to hard and just resorted to killing everyone.

Other Small Changes

Turrets should change color when disabled.

When a room is hacked/taken over, it should visually change color.

Shielded Enemies needed to have visual feedback when shot.

It was hard to tell when players were on low health, and they would die "out of nowhere", a low health indicator is needed.

Co-op should have a waypoint for Player 2.

Anything that had health but didn't have a health bar was confusing to players, people didn't know when turrets were dead.

Doors should be lockable and also visible that it's locked.

There needed to be an indication of score/credits so people could feel more rewarded for doing more objectives.