Obstacles/Challenges

1. Make the game more engaging while not increasing the difficulty by too much.
2. There is potentially a big audio-gameplay desync issue that is dependent on the device being used.
3. Effectively work with the audio team to create better/more fun level design.

Feedback

•  Player gets stuck under the platform or on edge way to easily, instead we should be more forgiving on the controls.
• Too much sensitivity in the movement.
• Increase height of platforms to a show bigger difference in height, right now it is hard to  see the difference.
• We should try adding a second level on top of the tutorial. It could showcase how the midi-based level generation on completely different songs.

Changes

• Change Left/Right Movement to be Static
  • Everyone who playtested thought that our left and right movements felt too sensitive.
  • We received suggestions to make the movement similar to subway surfers, since we have a set of lanes already.
  • Following this, we’ve made the left and right movement static. By going left/right, the player simply moves over to the corresponding lane in a static way.
• Platforms Blink before player has to take an action
  • Players are given a music score based on whether they jump, move left, and move right on the right time.
  • Our playtesters thought we should have more visual cues to help the player know when to take an action. 
  • So with this new feature, a platform will blink a certain color right before the player has to take a certain action. Below are the blinking colors and their corresponding actions:
    • Green -> Jump
    • Purple -> Move Right
    • Yellow -> Move Left
• Make Jump Higher 
  • We made changes to our jump mechanic, the jump is now slightly higher: the altitude change is more drastic.
• Level Decorations Bounce when Player Should Jump
  • Based on feedback we received about adding more visual indicators for when the player should jump on the beat, we have made the level decorations super bounce when the player is supposed to jump. 
  • This is also part of our efforts to add some game juice to our game. 🧃
• Add more animations
  • We have added the following animations:
    • Side movement animation -> for moving left & right.
    • Falling animation -> when cat falls off the platforms and dies.
    • Celebration animation -> when the player completes the level.
• Countdown Updates
  • We added a UI and sound effects to indicate the countdown at the start of the level. 
  • The countdown also shows when the player restarts a level.

• Add the Control Maps
  • We have added our current control maps into the Settings Menu.
  • It can be accessed by going into Settings and clicking on Controls. The control map that’s displayed will vary based on whether the player is using a controller or mouse & keyboard.
• Beat of the Jazz song stands out more
  • We’ve received a lot of feedback about the beat not standing out enough in our first level song. The audio team has provided us with a new version where the beat is easier to hear, we’re hoping this helps players know when to jump!

• Bug fixes & polishing:
  • Respawning from Checkpoint respawns the fish treats & score: 
    • We had a problem where if the player died and respawned, their music score would stay the same and they would just add to it. This was a big problem since players would have a higher score the more they died.
    • We’ve fixed this by resetting the score when they respawn to what it was when they passed the checkpoint.
  • Changed placement of Fish Treats so that the player can collect them all
    • We had some fish treats that were impossible to pick up. We have now ensured that it’s possible to collect all of them.
  • Checkpoint VFX missing: Our VFX around checkpoints was missing, we’ve added it again.
  • Score Calculation UI in the End Screen was not scaling: We fixed a bug where the UI in the end screen that shows the score calculation would not scale properly when we changed the screen size.
  • Countdown bug fix: Previously, if the player waited 5+ seconds in the main menu before playing, there wouldn’t be any delay or countdown in the start of the game. We have fixed that bug.
  • Small platform bug fix: with the new MIDI, the last platform that was generated was slightly too long and it covered part of the end box. We have fixed that bug.
  • Sync problems: We have fixed some issues with staying in sync with the music: 
    • First, when the player got stuck on a wall, it was causing them to be off beat. We have fixed that by respawning them based on where they should be in the song.
    • Moving left/right was also causing some sync issues, we’ve fixed that as well.