"Magic Carpet" Prototype 2 - Design Journal

Inspiration & Question

I was strongly inspired by many flight simulator on mobile games. My goal was to create a similar environment and user experience. The question I want to address is: Did the environment and character motion successfully create a simulation experience?

Implemented Features

• Press Spacebar to jump
• WASD to move the character
• Mouse to look around
• A Score Counter
• Obstacles to collide and/or destroy

Features to implement

• Add Levels (more obstacle or harder to reach)
• Restart the game if the player falls into the void/or into the forest
• Option to increase the player's speed
• Invisible walls and roof so the player does not fly outside the terrains
• Option to switch or personalize carpet (optional)

Questions for play tester:

• What is your first impression of the game?
• How difficult is the game?
• How did understand the story of the game?
• What aspect of the game do you find the most interesting?
• What there any option you wanted to do that you could not?
• If you had the power to change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be?
• How did you feel while completing the task (destroying the clouds)?
• Which features did you test?
• How much time did you take to explore the game?

Feedback from Playtesters

Notes from the Play tests

Issues: One of the problems play testers encountered was the lack of control of the air jump feature. Many pressed the space bar too many times and ended up hovering over the clouds instead of destroying them. Overall, the flying mechanic was hard to grasp and understand. Some were able to destroy all the clouds, the rest were able to destroy a few. The game was not hard to play, but it required lots of patience to wait for the player to fall slowly. They all took between 5 to 10 mins to test my game.

Suggestions: To speed up the fall, one play tester suggested to increase the player’s weight and gravity pull. If the user does not maintain a certain height, they could fall faster and faster, or whenever 3 clouds are destroyed, it gives them a speed boost (in which they can use whenever they need). Someone else also suggested adding plane-like control mechanics to create a stimulating experience closer to reality. Adding a story – the reason why the player must destroy the clouds –, sound and more levels could improve the overall experience and motivate the player to destroy the clouds. Live playtest Feedback: It would be nice to have an option to replay or reset the game (return to the checkpoint).

Reflection on result of playtest

Many play testers found familiarity once they opened my game. Some compared it to Mario Kart with the playful environment and obstacles. One play tester said that the obstacles on the ground were more interesting to interact with than the flying mechanism and I can certainly see why. I did enjoy kicking and tossing the obstacles as I pass through them when I was building my game. I also predicted the issue with the altitude when I pushed my last modification on GitHub, and I suggested on my Wiki to add an invisible roof and wall instead to reduce the risk of flying too high. It was amusing to see that someone compared the path to Quebec roads with many construction signs. After reading all the feedback, I realized that the question “How did you understand the story of the game?” was a little useless because I did not include a story in my game. All the play testers were also confused about that question. Overall, the play testers really enjoyed completing the tasks (destroying the cloud) and felt satisfied of their achievements. “Destroying clouds is a hard business, I also questioned my existence.” is one of my favourite feedback so far.