I got sent to The Room again...

Sooo.....

The Room 2 has been released.

Remember that game by Fireproof Games I played last October. Where you're in a room. With a box. YEEAAHHH, that one!! WELL ITS GOOD SO PLAY IT!

They have done quite a lot to it. Now your not just looking at one box in each room. Now you can actually look around the WHOLE room!! How exciting, aye! This isn't sarcasm. Honest. No really. In my opinion, this makes the game better than the first one. This is because it gives the player variety. Being able to switch your focus from something your getting frustrated with or been staring at for an extended amount of time can help them enjoy the game more. I also felt a little more immersed in the exploration because of this.

One thing I got really interested, was the use of perspectives and using the camera view to create symbols from lines in the environment. They experimented with this in the first game a little mainly on smaller puzzles. Now they have fleshed out the idea and used it in few different ways. The most used is what they use as the key to reach new rooms. Its an arrangement of several crystal like lines that float on in
the middle of the screen. The player just then move the camera angle to create a specific symbol. As the rooms go on they add more of the lines to make it trickier to find the right arrangement. They also change this challenge up a little at the end. They do this by making the movement of two sliders the way to adjust the crystals and not the camera view.

The other way they use this mechanic in the game is to arrange a few lines to
create doorways on walls to progress to an item needed in another puzzle. This really caught my attention as it was a similar idea that I had had for a test I haven't created yet.

The only thing I didn't like was that it felt a little too easy. I felt I was being guided too much by 'cut-scene like' flashes and places some things were placed. However, I think I was being a little be nit-picky about it. This could have been because I have gotten used to certain ways of hinting in games similar to this and my familiarity with the previous game. I might try to find if this could be true by testing it with someone that hasn't played the game before.

Possibly.

And I will build my version of the doorway puzzle.

See you soon. :)

Experiment Number 2 - Symbol Alignment - Fail 1

So I had done another test just before Christmas but forgot to post it on here so here it is. For this experiment, I got the inspiration from 'The Room'. It has little puzzle where the the player has to align number parts to find the number sequences for a lock. In my experiment though, instead of having a single point of movement and camera view. The player can move around in the room to see different angles of the parts of several numbers to align them to create the correct number. This then puts in a combination for a door.

I used a similar technique as my last test, in which I used the environment to give clues to the puzzles answer. I have also taken the feedback and results from my last test and made this experiment a three tier level. Starting off with a simple puzzle to place the idea behind the puzzles into the players mind. It then gets a little harder with a bigger puzzle/sequence and implementing the aforementioned environment hints indicating the order of the sequence and which numbers are needed.

Finally, the player then gets pushed into another room in which the puzzle is switched up a little. This puzzle changes the standard numbers (e.g. 1,2,3 etc.) to Roman Numerals making it slightly trickier, and again using environment hints on the walls in the form of dots and numbers - these indicate which numbers need to been entered and in which order according to the amount of dots.

So how did they do...

Test Subjects:

Jay: Figured the idea of the input fairly quick, but was getting confused with the delay on the feedback on the wall. Took a while to figure that the answers were on the walls. The only thing that frustrated him was the triggers not registering an input.

Josh: Understood the main idea behind the input from the first room. Like Jay got thrown off by the delay on the feedback for the sequences input. Took a while to figure out the clues were on the walls. Then took a while to figure them out.

Yannic: Took the longest to figure out the input. Got stuck with the way to open the 2nd room door mainly because he didn't notice the clues on the walls. Got stuck in both the 2nd and 3rd room because of the way the triggers were acting.

After Yannic I didn't do any more testing. This was because I saw a pattern of confusion coming from the use of the 'Line of Sight' triggers for the input device. I have redone these as 'Use' (a button press) triggers and added sound to the function to give the player more feedback. In the 3rd room I have tried a slightly different approach to feedback for actions by making the similar snap together in front of the player. Hopefully this will help limit the confusion around the input because the player will know they have done something.

I haven't had chance to test this build yet though so will hopefully be able to do a more extensive test with some of the 2nd and 3rd year BA students.

New Year Resolutions and all that lark...

It has taken me far to long to post this. It has been written down for over a month now -_- . So my resolution is to post more :).

So here is the conclusion to the Experiment Number 1...

Conclusion

What I found from this experiment is that a lot of things can shadow the meaning of a symbol and make it confusing to read for the player. The use of certain colours will be the main factor in this but the meaning of some symbols will need to be taught to be understood.

I also realised from this experiment that the player can get extreme frustrated and feel like they achieved nothing from completing a task if they are not rewarded. Because I didn't haven another room/task for the to do as a reward for completing the first or even just a congratulations text/star/hug most player didn't feel like they had accomplished anything. This doesn't include those players that relished the fact that they beat it in a faster time than their peers.

What I will take from this experiment going forward is that if I am going to make a frustrating task/level to annoy and confuse ( :P ) I need give the player at least a little bit of significant or rewarded. Also I will not create experiments in a singular manor, rather I will make them in threes. This allows for learning and gradual increase in difficulty, as well as giving motivation and reward to the player. Well, at least in a small form.