Sirius Rising Game Test at Binji Games Studio Binji Games’ nice dev team invited me to test an early state of their “Botlike” game and in return they tested the current state of “Sirius Rising” (only two levels yet). It was a very enjoyable and especially revealing evening. Here is a brief summary of the test result for Sirius Rising … Issue 01 Game objectives aren’t clear. It was not clear that the player must return to the starting point after picking up the weapon upgrade. Besides this, it is not obvious that the destructible walls are really “destructible”. The destructible walls passed unnoticed. Possible solution: Give the player some unmistakable hints at least at first time playing. For example through blinking icons/signs (e.g. arrows or exit signs). Make breakable obstacles look more “destructible” via a crack, already at the first sprite frame. Issue 02 The controls were criticised by one tester. He wished that ship decreases its speed by releasing the stick (L). Possible solution: Simply test it out! Issue 03 Even if there are not many sound effects integrated, one tester critcised the “bleep” sound. It does not vary enough and sounds annoying after seconds. Possible solution: Bring more variety via subtle adjustments and add more different sfx. For example: create sound effects for “menu up”, “menu down”, “confirm” and “back” … do not use the same sfx for all. Issue 04 The level select screen is total confusing at its current state. As described in an earlier posting, this problem is already known and must be fixed. Possible solution: V1 was preferred by all and might solve this issue. Issue 05 The Playstation controller was not supported. Only the X-Box controller worked without complaints. Solution: Not sure here … we have to investigate this issue. General Things: No one of the testers (three people) knew Uridium, therefore the game play wasn’t clear in general. Destructible elements like parked fighters passed unnoticed. The current test level (after Mission 01) was too hard. No one of the testers seem to prefer a gamepad as a control device in general. Since it’s really interesting to know the most popular input device for shmups on PC, I started a poll on Twitter today. If you are on Twitter, I would really appreciate if you participate: https://twitter.com/mazeon1138/status/824610810639122435 What’s your favorite input device? Please let me know! :) - - - Binji’s Botlike Game To conclude, I would like to recommend you the “Botlike” game which is currently in development by the indie game studio Binji, located in Hamburg/Germany. If you like rogue-like games with jump and run elements, this game might be very interesting for you. The pixel art is already rad and the current gameplay is very promising. Follow the development here on Tumblr: http://botlikegame.tumblr.com/ Or visit the game site: http://botlikegame.com/ They are also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Binjigames