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Control Thief Affinity Map - Coggle Diagram
Control Thief
Affinity Map
Base Evaluation
The games existing state is not in a terrible place but there is tons of room for improvement.
-Controls can be shown to the player before hand to expel any confusion.
-The user can do a tutorial before hand so he understands the mechanics to prevent frustration when the controls break.
The games movement is quite sound, the jumping and moving works quite well, along with the level layout looks good and works well
The controls also need fixing, some of the mechanics can be quite janky at times so I propose the following:
-Create an on screen panel that will inform the player when the controls are breaking and which task they must complete to fix the game
The animation on one of the enemies causes him to go slightly below the platform which would need fixing. The other animations seemed liked by the users and especially the evil cherry that makes the player go evil was taken well
Players Expectations
The players initial responses where quite good, they liked how the game felt, the general difficulty was at a good spot.
-Most of the users didn't expect the controls to break how the did, and it took a while before some could figure out how to fix them
-The mechanic where they would have to smack the table to fix the game was also problematic as on some occasion the game didn't fix and they would have to repeatedly smock the table which can cause some frustration
The users were quite confused at first because the games screen is off at the start and the player has to use his right mouse button to point and turn on the screen at the beginning of the game, then they must use the left mouse button to grab ahold of the joystick in order to move the character.
There is also a soda cup sitting in the view of the game screen
and in order to move it the player must hold down RMB to be able to hit it out the way, this was also not told to the player at the start so they are left to figure it out: I don't believe this is good for the UX as it would cause the user to be upset or just to think the game does not work as it was supposed to,
This would be considered a fairly simple task, but because non
of this information is shared I would see that users find the UX to be poor because this information was not told to them
What improvements can be made
The colors, characters, background and the in-game setting all seem to be liked by the players evaluation.
-We could possibly make use of a color pallet to tie in all the colors and themes together
Sound and audio clips can be adjusted or created
-There is no audio que for jumping and i feel that would add a nice element to the game
-The in-game audio can also be added to which will always created a nice atmosphere for the player
Controls are definitely need some work
-we can tell the player that he must grab ahold of the joystick to move the player instead of letting them figure it out
-The jumping works well but should be adjusted as they can spam the jump button next to a platform to get on top of it.
A full overhaul on how the player figures out what to do can be done:
Textbox's or panels that pop up when the player needs to do something is needed, this will at least show the player what their task is so that they can do it without causing frustration.
-Another great improvement will be a beginner tutorial whereby the the player runs through a basic level that shows them how to smack the table to fix the controls, hit the soda bottle out of the way and inserting a coin to keep the game from breaking
-Make a small change where the controls will only break when the player is touching the ground which will fix the controls breaking in mid jump over a platform, this will ease a lot of the frustration and prevent unfair deaths.
The fictional persona is one which plays games for relaxations and for escapism, so having a game that's too easy or too hard can become problematic, they do like a challenge so I believe the difficulty of the game is almost there. Just a few point i will mention below lists the improvements i feel will be of great success for out player persona
How does the evaluation
and expectations match up?
With the research and game evaluation I have conducted i feel like there is a gap between the users expectations and the evaluation of the game.
-Firstly the users expected it to be a more casual and easier game to beat, but with the additions of the controls breaking it made it quite difficult to complete the level.
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But with my evaluation I have stated a lot of the problems with the game, so in some instances the expectations were not too far off, by that I mean the expectations where that it would be a simple side scroller where the player must get passed the enemies and make it to safety.
i just feel as if we gave the user more explanation on the tasks and how to fix the controls within the game then it would more so live up to the persona's expectations
So with all this information being captured, I see the disconnect between the developer or UX designer and the player. Its easy for a designer to understand certain mechanics that they have created, but for the player we must realize that this is all new to them and we have to make it as simple as possible for the user to understand what is going on, while still keeping some challenge and enjoyment for the player to keep them wanting to play the game