Presentation Critiques (Week 11 Presentations)

Stick Ninja

Well, I'll start by saying that the team seemed to do a good work on the prototype, as well as the documentation of it. It's a pity that they were unable to show the video they made. They explained the existence of a character, enemies, and the weapons, but some other minor aspects of the game remain a little foggy.

They explained their prototype in great detail, and it emulated their gameplay mechanics well. They also always had the instructions available to the testers so they always had a reference - some things were a little complicated to remember offhand upon introduction.

The mechanic seemed to work and the testers had fun. As the tests went on, the team recognized things that could potentially make their game more fun. They also made some good changes from their feedback.

Zodiac War

This team had a really... presentable presentation. As a fighting game, they chose testers that were all fighting game gamers - this was a good choice on their part (choosing only those from their target audience), as this will probably yield the most usable feedback.

Unfortunately, for the majority of the presentation, I could not hear the speaker. He spoke very softly. All I could really tell was that they managed to get some good feedback, such as changing the pace of the game, creating more variation in attacks, improving controls, and ramping of AI. It was a productive session for them, and I think they did well for a paper prototype of a fighting game.

Crack Quest

Alright, this one made me laugh - definitely not for kids.

They made a pretty funky digital prototype. They had taken an existing game and edited it - it was rather humourous when the sprites would revert to the original game's. They developed the game well, all they needed was more art - more states for their sprites.

They received a lot of feedback on many different parts of the game, such as the need for additional weapons/enemies, cutscenes, and skippable dialogue. They were also given a potential new mechanic - dodging bullets. Originally, they could shoot down enemy bullets, but if this doesn't happen, they have a new mechanic that they can try out. I think it would improve the game as well, making it more challenging and skillful as opposed to a spam-fest.