Testing

The build created last week designed for testing work well. The game was played by a number of testers who gave a range of feedback on things like the turrets, enemies, UI, audio and general game operations.

Feedback on turrets

The turrets reportedly fit well into the game design and they feel very responsive when they tracked enemies. The particles spawned when the turrets shoot were also well received as well as the unique turrets firing sounds for the cannon, machine gun and rocket launcher type turrets.

However, the suggested improvements included adding variety to the barrel flare particle effect upon turrets firing as well as the sound turret effects. This could be achieved with more research into other free sound effects online (although the choice is limited).

The testers also noticed how the turret projectiles miss their target but still do damage (seen below). This is because the damage dealt by the turrets works on a script system which damages an enemy every few seconds rather than when a projectile makes contact with the enemy. Moving to a physics-based approach has its merits against modifying the current scripts because it may fix that bug.

The turret projectiles may also need variation for stronger turrets such as more/larger projectiles to display to the player that these do more damage.

The player should also be denied placement of a turret on the enemies’ path through the world. Using the already establish grid system to do this would be very complex and would involve determining individual tiles on the path. Using the grid system and a collider around the path may work when a check is made on whether or not the turret collider crosses over the path collider.

The turrets still act like turrets (shooting and tracking enabled) while the player is placing the turret. While there are program stubs to display where code like this should be written, the code is still in development. This is seen below.

It has also been suggested that the turret should display its range as a circle around the turret where circle radius as equal to the turret’s range. This would appear either when the player selects a turret from the build menu or selects  a turret which is already in the game world. A UI notification should also be displayed to inform when a turret has been bought.

Feedback on enemies

The explosion effect on the enemies was well liked as well as the sound they make upon destruction.

Enemies. They also looked appropriate for the prototype stage of the game. Their health bars were also appreciated as an aid to know how much health an enemy still has.

However, the enemies could use more variety such as the inclusion of ones with more health, speed, and damage capability against turrets. The design of these different variant must also be created to a standard higher than that of the current enemy design. The current game build also features only ten rounds so the maximum rounds and design of the rounds should be improved.

The enemies should also spawn further from one another which can be achieved by increasing the spawn rate of the enemies in the round array. The health bars of the enemies should also be fixed to be horizontal in respect to the game screen.

The enemies also move along the path via a number of waypoints. Once they reach a waypoint, they snap instantly to the direction of the next waypoint. It was suggested that the snapping could be smoothed out perhaps by using “lerp” in the movement script when adjusting to a new angle.

Feedback on the UI

The UI design looks good and contrasts the level design and therefore sinks in to the game world quite well. The UI them is constant across the scenes, UI text and icons.

Important information like the player’s money, health and current round should be displayed on the top of the map or somewhere where they are more visible. Embellishment like icons would also achieve this.

A turrets dropdown menu for all three major turret variants could be implemented to de-clutter the UI. This menu would be activated upon hovering over a button.

The buttons could also use a sound effect when they are clicked. The round timer should also be modified to show the remaining time value to the nearest two-three decimal points instead of what is seen below. It should also not display negative numbers.

Feedback on the Audio

The title screen soundtrack is a little too loud and needs modifying before the next build. The settings should also include a volume slider.

General Feedback

The art direction of the game was praised and the play was fun and is a great prototype to a bigger tower defence game.

These adjustments can all be implemented in time although some (e.g. dummy turret placement, round timer UI) are more urgent than others.