For the first time, this week, someone played Glo and uploaded the gameplay to YouTube. Mooshigamer gave the Glo Beta/Demo a go.
I was really excited when I saw her tweet and was anxious to see what she thought and how someone I’ve never met would find playing Glo. I’ve seen friends and family play it, but that’s different. They are always positive and if they completely don’t understand something I can just tell them. However watching a stranger thousands of miles away is a completely different experience!
I tentatively watched with my wife as Mooshigamer navigated the first few levels, reading the plot as she went. I was really pleased to see that the flow I hoped the game would have naturally came through. Even without me over the shoulder to explain “how it should be played” (btw the worst thing I could do when trying to get people to test my game, but one of the hardest things to stop!)
Then I noticed something. Mooshi wasn’t using the projectiles. Obviously! Why would she? Nothing has told her that is even a thing yet! In my attempts to not overly guide the player I went too far and made the mistake of not explaining the basic instructions. At that point I really wanted to reach into the video and say “press the left mouse button or right trigger”. But I couldn’t. I just had to watch. And that was actually great. As I watched Mooshi go through the levels without the use of the projectiles I learned so much and also gained a lot of confidence in the level design. Obviously I learned that I need to add a tutorial to the final build, but I realised that the levels were designed well enough that they could be navigated and enjoyed even with the added difficulty of no projectiles.
After watching the video I messaged Mooshi to say thanks and let her know about my mistake in not providing fundamental control information.
A couple of days later, she uploaded a follow up video this time using the projectiles. But then I noticed something else. I hadn’t explained how to aim the projectiles using the right analogue stick… Doh!
The lesson is no matter how well you think you’ve thought everything through there’s always something you’re going to miss. You can learn so much by silently watching other people to play your game, and it is one of the best ways to improve it when you think it’s complete.
Thanks Mooshigamer!