After having four different people play through the level, I’ve been able to gather feedback and see what worked and what didn’t work. Individual videos were posted in the prior blog, however here is a mashup/multicam of the four different perspectives at once:
The usage of focal points seems to have been effective – All players focused on intentional areas – The skeleton hanging in the first room, the lights individually illuminating the long hallway, the lightbeam shining on the eventual creature, the creature/light switch at the end of the room with water. I was very pleased with hos this turned out, and I think I’ve been able to use them effectively.
In terms of pacing, while players said they could see where or what I was going with however they said everything started happening too quickly – I think this is primarily down to the length of my level and a problem I didn’t anticipate. I was trying to cram a lot of information/elements into a single, short level rather than a more extensive one (Or even an entire game). As such, it had a knock on effect with being a bit dodgy with the tension I was trying to create for the player.
As far as the setting went, I think I was successful in my choice – I was able to start off the level in a deceptively peaceful environment and progressively make things worse, creating scenes that players said were tense, visually engaging and scary.
Overall with the lighting, I feel I did a good enough job with guiding the player to where they had to go, except for when players were presented with the two door switches – When the player triggered one, they didn’t know where the open door was. I’ll need to work on/figure out a way to make that clearer rather than just the text I provided.
As far as the pursuing creature goes, all but one said that it was effective at first, however it quickly got boring once they figured out it simply followed the player and could easily be outsmarted. I did fail here, I should have made the creature more unpredictable and allow it to pop up in unexpected places and behave differently. I should have played on the unknown, and have the player not know what to expect from it.
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