WEEK 13 Postmortem
After participating in the Halloween spooky playtesting in week 2, I received a lot of feedback. However, I made only a few improvements because I didn't have much time; I still had to complete other assignments. The four weeks of development experience have given me valuable insights. Firstly, I am grateful that I knew what I wanted to do by week 9 because I noticed that some groups were still in the discussion phase by week 10, which would inevitably compress their programming time. I'm also pleased that I was able to complete the main development of the game and conduct playtests at week 11 because I knew that designing a high-quality game requires multiple iterations, and playtesting is essential for that, and the earlier, the better.
Among all the testing feedback, one comment stands out: two people suggested shortening the length of the player's laser (in weeks 10 and 11). Generally, players tend to lean towards offense rather than defense. (This is also why I designed multiple weapons to fire simultaneously in this game.) Players tend to want more powerful weapons, and I thought a longer laser would look more powerful and should meet their needs. However, players complained that the "laser is too long." I don't remember why I didn't ask them for further clarification, but from subsequent feedback, I speculate it may be because they couldn't see the position of the cursor clearly. So I reduced the visibility of the player's laser and replaced the cursor with a much larger crosshair. After these changes, no players complained about the length of the laser.
Another interesting observation is that players really prefer to go on the offensive. Even if they get killed, they are more likely to attribute it to insufficient firepower rather than lack of defense. I wasn't entirely unaware of this phenomenon; I've played or learned about some games that emphasize offense, such as Blade & Soul and Assassin's Creed Mirage, where the variety of weapons and combat items far exceeds that of armour. But witnessing players' extreme behaviour in Space Marauder still left a strong impression on me. Most players readily choose Burst over Shield, and for the 2ndary Turret, Plasma is the choice of most players because it has the highest damage, although it's only for single-shot damage, and players don't calculate DPS based on fire rate. I think the phenomenon of "players really like to go on the offensive" may guide me in designing future games, even though I personally enjoy survival games and prioritize defense. Maybe it's a good design to label a weapon with a prominent DPS value for the players like Diablo 3 and 4 did.
(BTW, as a designer, shouldn't we prioritize calculating DPS when evaluating a weapon rather than just looking at its raw damage?)
As for the overall project development process, even though I've been enthusiastic throughout, it seems that my teammates don't share the same enthusiasm. This phenomenon is not unique to IGB220; it has occurred in other courses as well, and unfortunately, I'm also one of the "unenthusiastic team members" in other assignments. A long time ago, someone told me that playing games and making games are very different, and now I truly feel that. I used to think that students who chose this course were all people who loved making games, but now it seems that many people just enjoy playing and don't really like making games.
I've heard some rumours about the capstone projects, and it seems that there are more projects focused on creating software rather than games. This makes me a bit uneasy.
The game can be played on gd.games:
Play Space Marauder on gd.games, a game created with GDevelop, the free and easy game-making app.









