Week 3 Postmortem (Prototype 3)

This week, our prompt was 'Time'.  Dylan's project featured a 'Bullet Time' mechanic where the player can slow time to help with timing precise inputs, and a timer which forces players to reach the final objective as fast as possible. Alex's project had the speed of physics calculations gradually increase similarly to some infinite, procedurally-generated runner games (Subway Surfers, Temple Run). 

Playtesting showed mixed results. Many players liked the idea of a timer, though some players prefered being able to explore freely, making use of the movement. Bullet time was even more devisive. With one exception, players either saw no point to the mechanic or thought it could have potential should the game be designed to have more moments where it is useful, while said exception showed a very positive reaction to it during the playtest and thought it was fantastic. 

Although most playtesters didn't react positively to the mechanic, we knew going into the playtest that the level wasn't very well catered to the mechanic, and only one obstacle would ever warrant the use of the mechanic, and the one highly positive reaction told us that rather than scrap the mechanic, we should ensure that more players experience that moment of perfectly executing a jump thanks to the slow-down by creating more moments it can be used in and making those moments more accessible to more players.

For our final project, we plan on sticking with the original vision of a difficult, fast-paced platformer. There will be multiple levels, each of which featuring a timer, as well as different medals for beating it even faster than the timer. The bullet-time mechanic will also remain as we hope to replicate more of the highs it has the potential to facilitate and we plan on doing some fine-tuning and adding some environmental hazards such as spikes.