Testing: Week 1

Based on some feedback from other members of the team, I decided to use my existing digital prototype to test the effectiveness of our current dual joystick control-scheme. Currently, players move by pushing the left stick, and determine their facing by pushing the right stick, but some members of the team commented while playing that they had trouble mentally tracking both at once.

To test the intuitiveness of the control scheme, I removed all prompts from the prototype which inform the player of any of the right stick functions, and then waited to see how long it would take players to begin to use the right stick without being told.

Test 1
Duration of test: ~5 minutes

Player base skill level: Moderate

Time before first discovering right control functionality: ~20 seconds

Time before fully adapting to the control scheme: N/A

The player, when not prompted to use the right control stick, tended to simply maneuver himself to the side of objects that would allow him to strike them, rather than simply rotating. The first time he was met with an object in a corner, he first spent several seconds trying to maneuver behind it before finally rotating his character model to face it.

Even after the initial discovery of the rotation functionality, the player continued to simply strafe back and forth to keep enemies in his weapon arc, rather than rotating to face them. Only when the player had no other option than to rotate did the player choose to, at which point he would maintain his new direction until forced to move again. When questioned about this behavior, the player reports: "Just attacking everything from one side is easier."

This first test corroborates some of the initial concerns about the controls, as even a player who has already discovered their functions doesn't incline towards using them.

Test 2
Duration of test: ~3 minutes

Player base skill level: Low-Moderate

Time before first discovering right control functionality: ~8 seconds

Time before fully adapting to the control scheme: ~15 seconds

This player, despite reporting a lower starting level of game experience, very quickly began to utilize the second stick for rotation. Soon after they moved for the first time, the player seemed to notice their character wasn't rotating when they moved, and began to use the right stick only moments after. The player soon began to attempt to use rotation while swinging to increase the physics effect of their weapon - a concern which exists in the tech demo, but will likely not carry over to our final version due to differences in the calculations of particle and physics effects.

Despite the player's natural predisposition towards the control scheme, they soon began to exhibit behaviors reminiscent of the initial test - albeit to a lesser extent. As the first player, this one also tended to allow the player to simply face a single direction for long stretches of time, only rotating the character model when it was the only way to hit certain blocks.

Although this test seems to indicate a certain level of transparency of the controls, it also shows that even players who have an easy time maneuvering their character incline not to in most cases.

Conclusions
Further testing is definitely required for something as core to the game as player controls, but even based on such preliminary testing, it is clear that some change needs to be made. The right stick functionality seems to rarely be in the forefront of the player's mind, but there are still moments in gameplay in which even players who didn't easily adapt to the controls automatically utilized it. As such, I'm hesitant to remove right stick rotation entirely. Instead, for future test runs, I will make the following change:

When the player presses the right stick, they will face that direction. However, whenever the right stick is not pressed, the player will automatically face whatever direction they are currently moving. This change should stop the player models from appearing so static when the player isn't using rotation, but allows for the option in case players need it.

A potential issue that can arise from this change is a steeper learning curve for rotation controls, and many players that would have been able to intuitively discover rotation controls may now have to be informed of their presence.