Week 11

Hello once again; Luna, Neil, and Finnán here, to talk about the feedback received from our post-playtest form. We had 7 playtesters in total, most of which elected to give additional feedback. The visuals and general gameplay were received well; the same went the controls and camera, though there were some exceptions. One playtester found it confusing to control the car once it went around a turn and was travelling downwards, as this lead to the controls becoming inverted due to the camera not turning along with the car. Another got confused about which end of the car was the front, and attempted to progress by driving backwards until they were told which way the car is supposed to face. There was also feedback given for aspects of the game outside of the player car; for example, the CPU racers were generally not regarded as constant opposition, and multiple people mentioned that they become unimportant once they go off-screen, since the player can't see where they are anymore. A minimap showing racer progress was suggested, as well as a placement screen at the end of races so the player can see how well they did compared to the CPU cars. It was also mentioned that it should be more clear that the player should not cut across the track, and there was a suggestion of barriers to prevent it in the first place.

For the beta, we will work to address this feedback. The issue with not knowing which way the car faces can be fixed by adding details like break lights to the back, and we will see if anything can be done with the camera to make controlling the car more intuitive, though this is unlikely. We will also tweak the CPU players so they present more of a challenge, and add a signifier of what place the player is in during the race proper,  as well as a placement screen at the end of each race to show the results. The minimap would be a nice addition, but one that is not an immediate priority. Finally, measures will be taken to prevent players from trying to cut across the track in unintended ways, most likely through the suggested addition of barriers to each track.