Notes from Serious Play

[wjt]

Threadbare was playable in an arcade cabinet at Serious Play in Mainz last week. I took detailed notes from perhaps 8-9 players and odd notes from several more. All players were using mouse & keyboard, native Windows build, full-screened. The specific build was v0.2.0-77-g2a3f4a571 from commit 2a3f4a5.

I also attended a talk on user testing where they advised that one should split the "noting down problems" section from the "coming up with solutions" brainstorming, with a pass in between to agree on which problems matter. I have tried to adhere to this here!

General

• Everyone loves the art style.
• Grappling is the mechanic most people mentioned enjoying & wanting more of.
• Thematically people wanted to see more of the "healing the world" that we talk about in the dialogue in gameplay or in changes to the world around you.
• 1-2 suggestions to trim the tutorial to just teach grappling; then have a quest about grappling; and introduce other mechanics later.
• Ink combat a bit more divisive. Several people really enjoyed it; others were confused as to why the ink blobs disappear if not repelled, but bounce off walls (it's a fair point); and why filling the barrel(s) causes the InkDrinkers to spontaneously die.
• I spoke in some detail to a puzzle designer about the music puzzle. Her opinion in brief: memory puzzles are tired; perhaps we could explore moving away from what is effectively a piano to something based on the player's position in the world? (More like a rhythm/navigation puzzle.) Leaning into the music is going to be tough because not everyone has the knowledge/ear for it.
• Quite game-savvy crowd. Many people used WASD without even thinking, and even though we don't show on-screen that those keys can be used. Even so, many people found it hard to hold shift with their left pinky while moving with WASD.
• People expect to be able to mash space to skip through dialogue. Bind skipping dialogue to space/Xbox A #2404
• Grappling distance is asymmetric - in the tutorial you can reach up-right to get to the island with the thread, but you can't reach the needle in the opposite direction. It's weird! We should build a gym with all allowed orientations of grappling at exactly the distances that are possible.
• A sound designer noted that the audio levels are not even - music volume varies - and the writing sound and other sfx are almost too quiet to hear. (I had actually turned down the music.)

Quest Loop

• Returning to Fray's End, many people tried to interact with NPCs or leave the area before going to Fray's End. But they all got there in the end. Teleporting people back to the loom if they tried to leave worked every time.
• After taking threads to the Loom, few people interacted with any of the Elders. Instead they explored and often found the Void quest by walking directly right. (Not a bad outcome - it's the more polished of the first two quests. Enough NPCs along the way that they get what's going on.)
• Townie retelling: players keep mashing space but this means they accidentally choose the first option. Should we force a conscious choice here? It's one of the few (only?) consequential dialogue choices.
• Townie got stuck on the spot in one case, who knows why. I'll file a bug. Townie got stuck on the spot when walking away from retelling #2443

Fray's End

• Both NPCs near the cat should be interactable, not just one.
• “Why is the cat so huge? He's taller than the people!” Fair point but I don't see this as a bug.

Tutorial

• The mouse cursor shows from the start even when no mouse actions are possible.
• Ink combat: again people don't see the Z/RMB input hint, because it appears at the bottom-right. Arun doesn't tell you which button to use.
• "Plinth" is unfamiliar and we call them "altars" elsewhere. tutorial: Say "altar" not "plinth" #2411
• Grappling level: the needle & pin to the top-left of the starting island confuse people because they expect to be able to cross there, but in fact you can't reach the needle. (They are there to let you loop around and collect more buttons.)
• Because Arun's on the other island in the grappling level, you can't ask him for a clue. Maybe we can move him to the starting island and have him ask you to go and fetch the spool. Everyone figured out how to get around without me telling them, in the end, but it sometimes took a while.
• We need a retelling for the end of the tutorial quest. tutorial: Add retelling #2413

Void quest

• Several new routes in void grappling have been discovered! 😀
  • Unintended shortcut in void_grappling #2447 is the one that was discovered most frequently. I think I saw others but I can't find them now, and I think they have the same root cause.
• Signposts in grappling_needles don't work reliably because people don't read them (we have learnt this previously). If you don't realise you need to make a loop you are stuck. One player again suggested that they would have talked to an NPC, even though they didn't read the sign. Also removing the pins/needles at the bottom (without a townie's help) left some players confused as to why those buttons are there.
• In the last round, several people really wanted to go round and round in loops to collect all the buttons, or to lure the enemy further away so that they have more time. Turns out it's possible!

Musician quest

• One player thought the instakill storyvores guarding the bridge were unfair. Every other guard either chases you or has to touch you.

StoryQuests

• Because they are in alphabetical order, C is near the start of the alphabet, and it's got an English title, many people chose to play Champ. Do we want to merge the winning VRMont Cup team's entry so that this quest is not a placeholder? Or keep it for future VRMont Cups?
• Nora stealth: one extra checkpoint would go a long way. One player spent a really, really long time on this one!
• After the Tremor: opening cutscenes go on for a long time, and you can't abandon a quest while dialogue is playing because you can't pause.
• Renya: fix sequence puzzle hint signs, they show wrong clues.
• Stella combat: stars are too infrequent. Make projectiles less random?
• Stella combat: interact marker during opening cinematic. Interacting with NPC should not retrigger the whole opening cutscene.

[manuq]

Thanks for these notes Will! So much to digest!

• Thematically people wanted to see more of the "healing the world" that we talk about in the dialogue in gameplay or in changes to the world around you.

Yes, I think the hubs was a good step towards it. Maybe we need something more epic than fixing a bridge? Like 2 tectonic plates being united as camera shakes, and sealed with the same sewing effect as in the splash screen.

I've been also thinking in a "reweave" visual effect (shader?) for this, and that could also be used when townies make things appear #2282, in addition to the "cloud of particles to occlude the swap of tiles". But didn't have time to try it yet.

• 1-2 suggestions to trim the tutorial to just teach grappling; then have a quest about grappling; and introduce other mechanics later.

I humbly disagree (at this point). We should revisit the tutorial later in the future, once the whole game has a more solid shape.

• Ink combat a bit more divisive. Several people really enjoyed it; others were confused as to why the ink blobs disappear if not repelled, but bounce off walls (it's a fair point); and why filling the barrel(s) causes the InkDrinkers to spontaneously die.

Yes this needs some explanation (narrative). Also when projectiles disappear in games there is usually a clue (visually: the asset starts blinking). I opened #2442 about it. Bouncing off walls: well this is a game, I don't expect realism.

• Grappling distance is asymmetric - in the tutorial you can reach up-right to get to the island with the thread, but you can't reach the needle in the opposite direction. It's weird! We should build a gym with all allowed orientations of grappling at exactly the distances that are possible.

Yes, this gym has been waiting forever so I will prioritize it!

• Because Arun's on the other island in the grappling level, you can't ask him for a clue. Maybe we can move him to the starting island and have him ask you to go and fetch the spool. Everyone figured out how to get around without me telling them, in the end, but it sometimes took a while.

Good point! This made me think about keeping Arun on the other island, making him shout hints and moving the camera between Arun and StoryWeaver. Maybe interact with the land border that is next to Arun? Just a wild idea.

• Signposts in grappling_needles don't work reliably because people don't read them (we have learnt this previously). If you don't realise you need to make a loop you are stuck. One player again suggested that they would have talked to an NPC, even though they didn't read the sign. Also removing the pins/needles at the bottom (without a townie's help) left some players confused as to why those buttons are there.

Time to prioritize #1504 . This could actually be a task for interns! Is about adding a townie and adding dialogue.

Musician quest

• One player thought the instakill storyvores guarding the bridge were unfair. Every other guard either chases you or has to touch you.

Yes this needs a visual clue. They should be different! This is similar to ink blobs in round 3 having a "follow player" enabled. Adding a mod in the Inspector is trivial, but changing the mechanic should come with clues for the player, which is much more work than adding a boolean export and a few lines of scripting.

[wjt]

I agree about not redoing the tutorial/ability progression right now!

[wjt]

The suggestion for the instakill storyvores is that they should have a visible ranged attack. Perhaps they can throw a flaming torch that hits you with 100% accuracy :)

[wjt]

One thing I missed in this summary is that one player described repeatedly throwing the thread to pull in buttons as being a bit like a lizard sticking out its tongue to catch insects, which I was happy to hear because it means it's not only me who has that association!

[manuq]

Yes and, Yoshi :)