Section 4:
Player Feedback
During the Concept section at the beginning of my document, I mentioned that, once I had a working prototype, I would email the game to members of the class alongside a feedback form for them to fill out. This way, I would be informed of what the players liked about my game (guiding me on what elements I should focus on going forward, if I had more time) and what they disliked about my game.
However, I am only now setting to work on gathering feedback after finalizing my game. I confess that the reason it has taken so long for me to receive feedback on my game is due to my own nerves. It's an extremely scary feeling to have others play a game you have put blood, sweat and tears into developing, knowing that they will come back to you with a myriad of reasons on why your game is bad. Still, it is a necessary part of game development, so, at the end of my project, I have decided to put my fears to the wayside and go ahead with my plan.
The biggest problem that these (admittedly few) responses to the feedback form elucidated was the difficulty. Although the difficulty was not considered unfair by any means, the people who had tested my game were unable to get past the initial airbase. Thusly, the players were not able to answer several of the questions (favourite/least favourite enemy, favourite/least favourite location). Though challenge was a key focus of my design, I consider it a failure that it proved so hard that the players were not able to get far in the game.
This form also shed light on an element of gameplay that I hadn't considered: alternative control schemes. One player suggested the use of mouse controls, replacing manual turning with mouse guidance (meaning the aircraft would turn automatically to face the mouse) in order to make aiming easier. I really like this idea, because aside from making aiming easier, it makes the game more accessible by simplifying the control scheme.
This is why playtesting and feedback is important. Player input not only allows the developers to fine-tune the experience, but additional suggestions or unconventional/unintended styles of play break the confines of the developers' vision and opens the path to new ideas and concepts that otherwise would not have been considered.