destiny team mailing list archive

[Doug Shook <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:19 PM, Doug Shook <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Beta testing round 2 happened today! Here's a recap:
>
> There was still an overwhelmingly positive response to the game.  Not
> everyone liked it but most did.
>
> From the surveys:
>
> Likes: Questions, Bunny, and Bunny Sounds
> Dislikes: Questions, dying when it appeared they shouldn't have
> Hardest part: foxes/cars
>
> The responses were about 50/50 between it being too hard and just right.
>
> Some of the suggestions:
>
> -Fix the collisions.  (not what they said but what they meant)
> -Have less enemies per zone
> -Better pictures of the animals
>
> I know that we talked about the collisions previously, there were more
> complaints about it this time.  I still think it would be wise to consider
> making the bounding boxes a bit smaller to help this.  If it makes it too
> easy we can always jack the speed up a bit, but if the kids keep thinking
> that they're getting cheap deaths then they won't want to keep playing.
>
> Tom was also with me today and he had some good ideas for improvements
> which I'm sure he'll share.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 7:58 PM, Zach Elko <zachelko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> O.K., well that is misleading a bit. What happens internally on each
>> movement is the bounding box is updated, but the bunny isn't re-drawn. The
>> reason for this is simple: We need to check to see if the bunny has moved to
>> an invalid area before we can draw it. So, we update the bunny's position,
>> check it against all invalid areas (walls and boundaries), and correct as
>> necessary. So, it doesn't surprise me at all that there would be a situation
>> in which they don't appear to be touching, but internally they actually are;
>> the game simply ended before the next render() could take place.
>>
>>
>> Zach J. Elko
>> Ball State University Unified Technology Support
>> Certified Hardware & Software Technician
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 7:53 PM, Doug Shook <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> The reason he felt that he got cheated is because it was when he lost his
>>> last life.  The game freezes at that point and you could clearly see that
>>> the rabbit and fox pictures weren't touching at all.  I understand what
>>> you're saying about the bounding boxes, and I agree that there's probably
>>> not a bug involved, but we may be able to get more accurate collisions if we
>>> adjust them a bit.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 7:41 PM, Zach Elko <zachelko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Excellent! I'm glad they didn't hate it. The enemy speed is trivial to
>>>> adjust, so we'll start there. There is a bug in the tracker in regards to
>>>> how far the bunny moves per iteration, so that will need to be fixed before
>>>> we can increase the bunny's speed. Although, I think slowing the enemies
>>>> down will suffice.
>>>>
>>>> As for the student that stated they died when they didn't think they
>>>> should have, we'll have to see that bug replicated in order to fix it.
>>>> Although, since they are playing with the bounding boxes turned off, it is
>>>> easy to make that assumption. Chances are, there are no issues in the actual
>>>> collision detection in terms of detecting a collision when there isn't one.
>>>> But, I suppose we could make the boxes smaller, although I don't think it's
>>>> necessary to do so. Slower enemies should address the difficulty concern.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Zach J. Elko
>>>> Ball State University Unified Technology Support
>>>> Certified Hardware & Software Technician
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 6:12 PM, Doug Shook <dsshook@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  Hey everyone, I went and did some beta testing with the kids today and
>>>>> it went very well.  I got through about 8 kids today and there were very few
>>>>> complaints.   The basic rundown:
>>>>>
>>>>> Boys liked it way more than girls, of course.
>>>>> Normal difficulty is in fact way too hard for them.  Everyone ran it on
>>>>> easy and even then some kids struggled.
>>>>> Girls cared more about the questions than the boys did.  One boy even
>>>>> blazed through the levels without even caring if he was right or not.
>>>>> They LOVED the different types of enemies and the rabbit character.
>>>>>
>>>>> The number one complaint I received was that it was too hard.  Their
>>>>> suggestions were usually to slow the enemies down or make the rabbit
>>>>> faster.  A combination of the two would probably be ideal.  There was one
>>>>> kid who was upset because he thought he died when he shouldn't have.  Making
>>>>> the bounding boxes smaller would help this problem and perhaps make the game
>>>>> a bit easier as well.
>>>>>
>>>>> Finally, I asked them to fill out a short questionnaire afterward and
>>>>> here's a brief rundown:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Likes:
>>>>> Math questions - half the kids put this (the girls perhaps?)
>>>>> The animals
>>>>>
>>>>> Dislikes:
>>>>> the speed of the foxes - 6 of 8 kids
>>>>> Speed of the rabbit too slow
>>>>>
>>>>> Hardest Part:
>>>>> Foxes and/or cars, similar to the above
>>>>>
>>>>> I asked them if they thought the game was too easy, too hard, or just
>>>>> right and it was a 50/50 split between too hard and just right.
>>>>>
>>>>>  That's it mostly.  I'll be going back on Thursday to try and get the
>>>>> rest of the class done.
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>