Final Blog Post

Last Blog Post

What Worked For Us:

We think that the overall feel of the game is fun and engaging. The crickets move about like real crickets, and the impacts between the two are satisfactory to almost all of our players. We think that the general feel of the game was done correctly.

As for our GUI, there was not a problem with interacting with it. Players understood how to navigate it, and they showed great interest to the design and structure. We are glad to say that our GUI was handled correctly.

As for the AI, players thought they were going against another player. This tells us that the AI was enticing enough and posed a well-balanced challenge to the player.

What Did Not Work For Us:

The learning curve for the controls was difficult to get right. It seems that at first, the controls are hard to pick up. After a couple of rounds, players became accustomed to them. We always felt that the controls needed work, and we did try many solutions.

Some of the backgrounds needed to be toned down. There was one that almost hid the players, so gameplay was very difficult.

Pathfinding for the AI would have yielded more level designs, but that was not possible. We didn’t know how to approach it properly.

What We Learned:

We learned that the use of sounds and GUIs made our game feel complete. Without them, the game would have felt unfinished. The sound choices and GUI designs really help satisfy the game in how it feels and how it plays.

We also learned how to create an enticing bot that fooled players into thinking that it was another player.

What We Changed:

We changed the speed of the movement. The first play test session told us that the crickets were too slow. So, we increased the speed and analyzed players. They definitely liked the increased speed.

Some of the backgrounds were changed and toned down to provide an interesting and simple environment to theme the game stage. Also, new GUI elements were polished up to provide a more cohesive game structure.

The highest difficulty level for an AI allows it to seek players out and collide into them. We thought this subtle change would influence the play style of the other player and heighten the challenge levels.

What We Adjusted:

We made the music in each stage quieter to allow the sound effects to be heard better. The Background and arena colors try to match in color hues. Also, a GUI was added for adjusting the difficulty level of the cricket instead of having the stages have the difficulty set for them.

The AI has adjustable difficulty so that players can take their own pace in dealing with the enemy. Plus, we thought that certain themes and musics would play out better if the player could choose the difficulty of the opponent.

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