Playtesting has ultimately shaped our entire process due to how we tried to apply feedback received in both playtesting sessions to our game. Our first alpha playtesting session of Behemoth was the most informative- in the early phases of Behemoth, the issues were very obvious right as we started the playtest. However, as time goes on, it becomes increasingly more complicated to determine where the issues lie as the complexity of the game increases through the development process.
In the alpha playtest, many of our problems stemmed from the controls and placement of the player avatar. As a recap, in Behemoth you control a large ship which is situated on the left side of the screen. It is immovable, but you have control of a shield and a large cannon to fight and defend yourself from enemies. There was an issue in this design as there was a huge disconnect between the player’s avatar and the action. Many of the play-testers were spam-clicking the mouse because they were unaware when the cannon as ready to fire again. At the time, there was an indicator (the color of the cannon changed from red after firing, then slowly faded back to blue, to simulate overheating), but it was on the left side of the screen, where the player was never looking. As time went on we corrected this problem by adding a reloading animation on the player’s cursor (which was also not present in Alpha). Furthermore, since the cannon was located on the left side of the screen while the action took place on the right, it was very irritating to know where you were actually aiming your cannon, despite the addition of an aiming cursor. The drag of the cannon makes this an unreliable way to actually tell where your projectile will go. To remedy this, I suggested adding a sort of “flashlight” to point from the cannon to show exactly where it was aimed. This way, the player can tell where they are pointed without even looking at left side of their screen. Our next playtest that included these features saw little to no complaint about these issues anymore.
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Amanda Cohen 
Hi Amanda! Your blog explains nicely some issues that playtesting has helped you discover and how you solved it in your game. I think it was nice to read. However, I would like to know more about what the players thought about your game in general, and what more playtesting can do to help the game development process. Perhaps some tips on what you and your team discovered that is good to think about when having a playtesting; what to do, some good questions to ask and such. Maybe some of your own thoughts on playtesting, as well. It would also be nice to see some pictures. Perhaps of the cursors, so that the reader can see how it changed based on the feedback.
I like that you described the different feedback that you got from the alfa and the beta. It is interesting to read how your changes was received by the players. Because the players are seldom playing a game the way that is intended.
Looking forward to seeing your finished game on Thursday and to try it out myself!
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Hi Amanda!
I’m really happy to hear that the playtesting sessions have helped your group to improve your game! I can definitely agree on that it is tricky to find the bugs and wrongs in your own game, since you eventually become blind to all the different errors. My group also had issues finding flaws in our own game. However, the bugs were then discovered during playtesting. Just like you, I have certainly understood the importance of playtesting; since it benefits the development in a crucial and favorable way.
I genuinely enjoyed reading about how your group addressed the problems that appeared. You came up with great solutions, and the game have definitely turned more advanced and enhanced since the Alpha playtest. I think you have been clear about what you have done, and why it was done. You expressed your approach in a brief but understandable way. However, I would like to get a better understanding about how the procedure was done. I would have highly appreciated some pictures describing how the approach were accomplished. Since I have played your game, I may fathom your procedure better than others. Have in mind; there may be people who haven’t played your game, and would not be able to understand how you dealt with your bugs.
Overall, I really enjoyed your blog post! I may salute you for the good idea of adding a “flashlight” to the game. I think that was a great solution! You presented me with valuable information, and I will definitely remember this. Thereby, I can learn from it and then use the solutions in the future. I really wish you good luck with finalizing the game. I’m excited to play it!
/Lina Femling
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