Playtesting takeaways

During our playtesting sessions, we received several helpful feedback and potential improvements. One common theme throughout the player feedback sessions was a disconnect between the player and camera movement. Many playtesters noted that the camera movement felt very abrupt and the player movement felt too quick. We took this into consideration and slowed down the player movement and expanded the camera view to allow for smoother camera movements.  In addition, many testers said the map was very large without much guidance, which made the game very difficult to navigate through. As a result, we incorporated a mini map that indicates where all the enemies and friends are.  We also received some suggestions about the difficulty of the game, stating that the difficulty ramp of the game did not feel smooth.  Hence, we reworked the difficulty system by giving enemy ships more health in the second level, and creating a boss with several attack patterns in the final level. Lastly, we received feedback that the instructions were not clear enough except for the tutorial level, so we incorporated a pop up at the start of each level that clearly details the objective of that level, as well as a pop up for each new type of weapon unlocked.