Testing: Week 9

10/31

2 rat spawners, 5 player maximum, 6 swords on screen

6 testers total

22 minute session

2 of 6 testers attempted to punch rats while holding no weapons

6 of 6 testers preferred dual wielding

5 of 6 testers camped rat spawners for kills

3 of 6 testers tried to attack other players

6 of 6 testers felt swing speed was too slow

4 of 6 testers needed help picking up a weapon

2 or 4 testers who needed help also needed help picking up a second weapon

-- 4 minutes in, rat spawn rates increased. 2x 100 burst size, 4.0 burst length --

2 of 6 testers continued to camp spawners, but fell back whenever spawning started

3 of 6 testers dropped their offhand weapon for a newcomer to use

-- 10 minutes in, keyboard is accidentally bumped, 5th player is spawned but nobody takes control --

At this point players invented a new game, "protect the afk" where the goal was to keep the large swarm of rats from

reaching the uncontrolled 5th player. On one occasion a player pushed the afk into a corner above one of the spawners.

Even though the rats dealt no damage, players were excited for the game, and continued to play for 6 minutes.

Additional notes:

All players triggered their character particle emitters and left them on for some time. While emitting, these players tended

to run in tight circles and continued to attack rats, but occasionally avoided the rats to continue running around.

Framerate started to suffer when 400 rats were allowed to accumulate, and then all slain rapidly

(5 death particles per rat, 1-3 second duration)

Most often repeated complaint was that cooldown after a swing was too long/swing speed was too slow

--

11/1

2 rat spawners, 5 player maximum, 6 swords on screen

1 tester

14 minute session

Player attempted to punch rats. Player initially struggled with controls, fled from mice and eventually picked up a sword on accident, but dropped it

again attempting to swing with the same button. Player commented that using the right trigger to swing their sword felt strange

Player knew of dual wielding ahead of time, but still took considerably more time to realize how to pick up an off-hand weapon.

Player commented that using left shoulder button to equip the off-hand weapon was unintuitive. While dual wielding, player seemed

comfortable with the idea of using both triggers to attack using both weapons.

Player very strongly favored dual wielding, and commented that a single sword much too slow to be enjoyable.

Player commented that the mice were "cute, but not cute enough to feel bad about killing" as they didn't look like real mice,

and that the particle explosion was their favorite part of killing mice. Player confirmed with tester that there was no

additional content to test, continued to slay mice for an additional 11 minutes.

Player experimented with alternating left-right swings, and the "Scissor swing", in practice strongly preferred alternating.

Player commented that weapon swings would feel better as a "1-2-3 combo" instead of the same swing repeated

Player commented that movement speed was was good.

Player commented that the exact damage arc of the sword was unclear, player recommended an arcing visual effect

Player complained over lack of jumping.

Player did not feel that the rat spawning nests were objects to be attacked.

Player was aware of what the right thumbstick did, but felt it was unnecessary and commented it might be more useful for ranged players

Player dropped their weapons and crowdsurfed on top of rats for 2 minutes

Player identified their location as a crystal cavern

player commented that their character was some "some sort of emerald with a thing sticking out the back"

11/1

2 rat spawners, 5 player maximum, 6 swords on screen

2 testers

8 minute session

--

both testers attempted to punch rats

both testers left their emitters on for a period and ran in circles pretending to be on fire

blue player left his emitter on for nearly the entire test

green player attempted to punch blue player

blue player commented how cool it would be to stab rats with a sword and punch them with his main hand

both players strongly preferred dual wielding

both players strongly preferred alternating left and right swings. In one instance, green shared his strategy with blue of perfectly

timing his left and right swings so that he was always attacking. Blue mastered this timing, and commented he felt like a chef

dicing rats apart

both players equipped and dropped their weapons repeatedly. Felt it was good that weapons couldn't be dropped directly on top of

one another, but that the radius for not being able to drop weapons was too large, and that they should be able to drop both

weapons at once without needing to move around

green player discovered right stick, began to use it to attack rats while circle straffing

green player shared this strategy with blue player, who was unaware that the right stick did anything, but was excited to use it

players assumed formations to cover rat attacks from all sides, were upset when a rat got through their sword wall and touched a player

green player commented he wanted a "mighty swing" to deal damage in a much larger arc all at once

blue player wished for trident weapons for stabbing enemies

both players identified their location as a crystal cavern

both players identified their characters as "cool dudes, I can see where they're facing"

players felt the most satisfying aspect of killing rats was seeing them shatter and the glowing effect of the pieces