In our game development, there were five phases where we got feedback from peers. The first two were presentations in class of our Paper Prototype and Digital Prototypes, and we learned what people thought would work well and what they thought could be improved on. The next three were actual playtests of Alpha, Beta, and Final versions of the game.

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Alpha testing

For our initial alpha test of Time Hopper, we had a computer setup in class for people to come and play. At least one of our group members stayed with the computer at all times, and recorded ​feedback from the testers. We wanted to get raw impressions and reactions to the game, and so for the most part we stayed quiet and let them try and figure out the game. Players thought our game was challenging but fun, and enjoyed the 3D aspect of it.

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Here is the link to play the Alpha version of our game:

https://roughcutgames.github.io/FirstGit/TimeHopper1/

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The most common suggestions we got for what we needed to work on were:

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- Improve camera (you had to use Q and E keys to turn left or right 90 degrees)

- Add extra UI elements to make game easier, such as an indicator for helping find the portal and an indicator for how many pieces of food you have left to find

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Some things that are working well and were well liked in the alpha playtest:

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- 3D world exploration

- Audio (jumping, bouncing, collecting food, etc)

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From this playtest feedback as well as the feedback we got from the class's required feedback form, we decided to work on the camera movement by adding more cameras that allowed the user to turn 45 degrees at a time. This helped the gameplay and experience be a bit smoother. We also added a UI element that told you whether or not you had collected enough food yet, as well as a sky beam above the portal that helped guide you to it.

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Beta testing

Our beta testing was conducted the exact same as the alpha test, with us recording feedback from the players live and looking at feedback given on the class feedback form. 

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Here is the link to play the Beta version of our game:

https://roughcutgames.github.io/FirstGit/TimeHopper2Beta1p2/

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The biggest addition to the Beta version of our game was the enemy AI, where players got chased around by local enemies as well as Professor T. This seemed to be a hit among testers, because many commented that it created intensity and fun. Other positive feedback that we got:

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- World exploration was interesting and enjoyable

- 45 degree camera turns are an improvement over the 90 degrees

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Critical feedback that we got gave us good insight on what to improve on next. The most common three were:

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- Need to add look up and down feature

- Some of the platforms' heights and sizes needed to be adjusted

- Find a way to let the player know that they don't have enough food yet for the portal to open

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We took this feedback and were fortunately able to address all three of the common suggestions, fixing all of them. One overarching comment though was that the camera movement needed work, but players did seem to like the 45 degree options instead of 90.

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Final testing

Final playtesting of the game was also conducted the same as Alpha and Beta, with the addition of us getting people outside of the class to also play the game and give feedback.  

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Overall, the two biggest takeaways we got from the playtesting feedback were:

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- Players were happy with the exploration of the levels and the amount of details and things to discover that there is

- Camera movement needs more work (experienced gamers said that it was sufficient, but less experienced gamers or non-gamers had difficulty)

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Looking back on the project, there are still bugs and mal-features that need to be improved on, but with the limited time for the project we are happy with the product we ended up with. Some examples of things we'd like to work on and fix with more time would be adding smooth free-panning camera movement, and better fitting text in game that is more pleasing to look at (both UI elements and tutorial text). We also would like to adjust the difficulty a bit, so that the penalty for when Professor T catches you is less. The playtesting showed us that while players enjoyed the exploration of the levels, it took a bit too much time to then go back through them when you had to start over. 

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Our full playtesting feedback and highlights can be viewed here:

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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tYNDSNxaw0WXZKKCuHVo25fzeZZB6lR83UvzY9RK5iM/edit#gid=0

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