Beekeeper Simulator

Iteration Cycle: Alpha release 0.1

Playtest #1

Playtest Organizer(s): Ali, Olivia and Tara

Date: February 28th

Setting: Discord Voice chat + Stream

Method:

No instructions were given but questions were answered.

Goal(s):

The goal is to find any bugs and possible errors within the game, as well as assess the game in its pre-alpha stage.

Playtester(s):

Lindsay

Madelaine

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Madelaine liked the feel of the game but felt confused by how the player interacted with various elements of the environment. 

Response: This has been fixed in the beta. Whenever a player goes near an interactable object a popup with the interaction key however above the object so the player knows what button to hit. For the inventory bar we’re relying on context clues for the player to understand how to select various items. Since inventory bars are so prolific in other simulator/farming games like Minecraft and Stardew valley we don’t anticipate this being a problem.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #2: Lindsay wanted some of the mechanics like crossbreeding of flows or different kinds of bees.

Response: We decided against different kinds of bees early on to minimize hive management UI complexity, we want the vibe to be more chill. As for cross pollination, this would be a really interesting idea to explore, but might be out of scope for the course.

Observation #3: Madelaine wanted the honey selling to be fleshed out more. Some type of motivation for the honey selling.

Response: The player can now use their profits to purchase other more and new flowers with their profits. This is really central because it motivates the player to invest in our core gameplay loop and continue playing. We also want to enable the player to buy and place new hives.

Observation #4: Madelaine wanted to be able to combine different kinds of honey. 

Response: This might be difficult to fit in scope, but the different types of honey are more fine grained in the beta version of the game, so hopefully players will feel satisfied with the added diversity (colors!). 

Observation #5: The fluid shader can be glitchy, although Madelaine enjoyed it anyway.

Response: This has been fixed.

Observation #6: The effect of nighttime was unclear to Madelaine.

Response: The ground now looks dimmer at night to make it feel darker. The bees also don’t come out during the night, making nighttime feel more substantively different compared to day.

Playtest #2

Playtest Organizer(s): Olivia

Date: March 2nd

Setting: UofT Library

Method:

Olivia gave a brief explanation what the game is about and the controls. She let Muizz explore and try out the game and answered any questions.

Goal(s):

The goal is to find any bugs and possible errors within the game, as well as assess the game in its pre-alpha stage.

Playtester(s):

Muizz A - Alumni and graduate from UofT, programmer, experienced with game design and development, Olivia’s friend.

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Muizz got the hang of the game after a brief summary of what our game is. Although not fully developed yet, he says it’s a simple and enjoyable game loop.

Response: We have not implemented any instructions yet however we plan to put in an introduction that will explain the controls and gameplay. We have not decided how to go about it within the game, how should we implement the explanation and rules of the game that will be coherent and fit the theme?

Observation #2: The controls were mostly straightforward for Muizz. However some were a little weird that it wasn’t incorporated such as the scroll wheel to go through the inventory slots.

Response: We have not implemented any instructions yet however we plan to put in an introduction that will explain the controls and gameplay. We have not decided how to go about it within the game, how should we implement the explanation and rules of the game that will be coherent and fit the theme?

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #3: Muizz was concerned about the start up of the game, as it loaded instantly into the game without and introduction or warning. It was also very load when it started, saying that the volume should be toned down.

Response: We’re sorry that the start up music startled you, we will adjust the volume accordingly. Our plan includes adding a main menu and a pause menu that would include save slots, settings adjustment, and many more. We’ll add a volume adjuster so players can adjust to their comfort level.

Observation #4: Muizz thoroughly enjoyed the environment, models, and art in the game. He felt immersed into the game and thought the vibe and aesthetics match the theme of our game. He wants to see more implemented to flesh out the game and develop further with the placeholders we implemented. The customization should be at its fullest since it is the appeal of the game. He suggested adding clouds and more grass.

Response: We are being careful to prioritize objectives and necessary assets so we don’t get sidetracked, however we are working on giving all inventory objects a stylized UI and the rest of the menus. What are other things you’d like to see implemented into the game? What do you deem necessary to keep the player involved within the game?

Observation #5: There were a couple of bugs and breaking points when Muizz played. He pointed out inventory glitches and found places where he could jump out of bounds over the fence and fall out of the world. The object placement and pick up system was also very funky as he could place things very far away or on trees. When you pick up an item, it should swap the inventory equipped to that item slot, and also show the item in your hand. Currently it only does the former, and not the latter. The starting beehives should also be customizable and there should be some indicator for when you pick up items.

Response: It was funny watching all the ways that our game can be broken. The boundaries will definitely be more secure. We’re currently waiting for our computer science team to fix and add in functions that should be implemented, I will let them know of the bugs and issues that are concerned. There will be a highlight system implemented as well, but what are other things that will help make the inventory and pickup system better? Would more inventory slots help or implement a storage system?

Iteration Cycle: Alpha release 0.2

Playtest #3

Playtest Organizer(s): Akiki, Ali, Olivia, Sacha and Salome

Date: March 6th

Setting: UofT campus, Innis College room 204W

Method:

We were silent observers throughout playtests so that we could observe the players’ natural instincts to figure out how to play the game themselves. Only giving pointers when a player became stuck. At this stage of the game, there were no physical instructions implemented, so it was a good opportunity to observe and collect data on what players may want the controls to be. Thus we did not explain anything except for the concept of the game (“You are a beekeeper, …”) to the player before they entered the game. If anything wasn’t intuitive enough and should be changed, or if our game was intuitive enough to play with ease. After the player has tried out the game, we asked them several questions about their experience, what they liked, didn’t like, what they struggled with, and potentially other questions based on what we observed from their playtest session. We tested one version of the game, our latest version, with the most recent updates.

Goal(s):

Our goals for this play test was to:

1. Get feedback from relatively experienced game developers
2. Test the intuitiveness of the controls of the game (as even among our group, we had at least three different ideas of what the pick up and place controls should be based on different games we’ve played, or based on never having played games before and suggesting what would be most intuitive for a non gamer)
3. Find any points of frustration for the player when playing the game (if any), either due to design, or bugs, so we can eliminate them
   1. If we encountered any of these issues, we would ask the next playtester what they thought about these or if they’ve experienced any of these after their playtest session to ensure we get the opinions of multiple people
4. To test the “funness” of the game, and collect general feedback

Playtester(s): 

The UofT Game Design & Development Club 

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Controls and object interactions

Observation #1: Player movement and camera look around controls were intuitive for everyone, however different players had different ideas of what the pickup and place controls should be. Some suggested/prefered left click for both, some suggested/prefered right click for both, while others suggested/prefered either left click to pick up, right click to drop, or vice versa.

Response: We should determine the most commonly used/requested controls based on player feedback throughout our playtests, and conventions used throughout the gaming industry for pick up and place down, stick with those, and add player control instructions so that the player knows what to use after reading the instructions.

Observation #2: Certain object interactions used E instead of our mouse clicks (such as selling to shipping bin and accessing beehives). Players questioned why this was, and didn’t realize the interaction with those objects were E instead of mouse clicks.

Response: These confusions clearly stem from the fact that we hadn’t yet implemented an in game overlay “Press E to Interact” on some of these objects. Thus once we implement this, the issue would be resolved.

Observation #3: One player got confused and continuously clicked the hive when attempting to collect bee products because there was no indicator for when a hive is empty/ when a material has been collected.

Response: We will implement a UI menu which pops up when players press E to interact with the hives, such that when the player collects bee products, it will be obvious when the hive is empty and no more product can be collected.

Game design

Observation #1: Some players started off the test session by looking for UI popups and notifications for controls or instructions, as just being dropped into the game, they didn’t know what they should do, or had (correct) guesses, but didn’t want to try before reading instructions.

Response: We had a book UI guide that the player can go to, should implement UI instructions in a more obvious way (either on screen or through some other obvious means) that the player can go to for guidance. Another possibility suggested was to have the book UI guide (in game object) glow and have an arrow pointing towards it, so that players can know where to start. This was something we later implemented

Observation #2: Despite not explaining the concept of the shipping container to players, players understood the purpose and mechanisms of the shipping container after brief interaction. The collection and selling loop was clear and intuitive to everyone

Response: This is a good outlook, though we may consider adding more explicit instructions in the future to catch players who may potentially not understand the mechanism.

Observation #3: One player reported that they thought the shipping bin was a table (as it had items placed on it at the time), but understood the concept of the shipping bin once they walked up to it and the open animation triggered.

Response: We will come up with some way to indicate to or teach the player that the shipping bin is a shipping bin (such as using a tutorial, using an in game UI popup/instruction).

Observation #4: Players understood the day/night cycle of the game intuitively. Some questioned why there were no bees at night time. Those questions were answered by the following day cycle when bees reappeared.

Response: We will continue with this mechanic

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

General experience and environment

Observation #1: Once players understood the rules and mechanisms, most reported high enjoyment of the game, expressly in the art style, chill vibes, and the tycoon mechanisms. They appeared visibly happy and engaged with the game during playtesting before we talked to them and asked questions, so we take this as a likely sign of genuine enjoyment.

Response: We will continue with the current style, and general aesthetics for the game

Observation #4: Many players expressed that they were extremely immersed and relaxed in the environment of our game. One even expressed that they wanted to sleep in the bed of flowers.

Response: We will try to continually add more fun small features to the game that players can discover and have fun with on top of our core game mechanisms.

Observation #5: Players didn’t notice when the music looped to the beginning. The transition with the music is smooth and enjoyable

Response: We will continue with this type of soundtrack.

Gameplay and direction

Observation #1: Many players expressed that they didn’t know the end goal of the game, as it wasn’t clear what they were supposed to be doing.

Response: Upon further questioning of playtesters, this appeared to be an issue with lack of instruction/direction in the game, rather than in the concept of the game. Some suggested that having a book of goals or objectives, or some form of direction for the player. We will work on adding more direction and explicit instruction for players in the game.

Observation #5: One player wanted more visual feedback for jars in the shipping bin, such as having jars visible inside the bin when open so that players can see that there are things being sold of the next day.

Response: While this is a cool idea, and may be an extra aesthetic feature to implement in extra time, such a feature may just be covered by our shipping bin UI window, which was something we were thinking of implementing in the near future, for a more intuitive selling experience.

Playtest #4

Playtest Organizer(s): Akiki, Ali, Olivia and Tara

Date: March 7th

Setting: UofT campus, Myhal room 330

Method:

One person gave a brief explanation of the controls and guided the player throughout the game when asked questions. Another person gave no explanation and let the player explore for themselves. We wanted to see if this greatly impacted the players or methods.

Goal(s):

The goal for this test is to gain feedback and perspective from other creators and a better understanding of those who are familiar with the concept but still new to approaching the game. We also check in for room to improve and how to advance from the faculty.

Playtester(s):

3D Game Design (OCAD/UoT) Students - a range of gaming backgrounds, ages, genders and experience.

Steve - UoT Computer Science professor.

Christine - UoT Teaching Assistant.

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: One person suggested that the shipping times and prices similar to PC Building Simulator for a more fun aspect to the shop. It would be nice to have an extension to the game such as farm building, more decorations, and parkour like Minecraft.

Response: We’re not sure there should be fluctuating values and shipping would be our top priority and needs to be changed, however I like the extra small details that change the quality of the game. What we probably could use is a more improved game system that would keep the player interested. We want to add more decorations and have more mechanics to the game but we will see how much time and capability our team can do in the timeframe.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #4: A player noticed that when interacting with the beehive, there should be a jar indicator ui bar. The notification for the honey quantity contain a long number of decimal numbers. Change the decimals to 0.1 or dont collect until full.

Response: The UI for the beehive and jar are currently finished, just not implemented to visualize the system.

Observation #5: One player noticed that there wasn’t any indicator for money. They suggested that we put in a activities tab for notifications rather than a notification bar on the top. Other suggestions included are lowering th opacity for the flowers and havve the beehives also have a highlight or an outline to make it more noticeable.

Response: The activities tab is a great idea, we can integrate it as a list UI

Iteration Cycle: Alpha release 0.3

Playtest #5

Playtest Organizer(s): Tara

Date: March 7th

Setting:

Discord DMs (no voice/video chat)

Method:

I tested one version of the build, I gave her the Alpha 0.3 release which was a slight update from 0.2 the day before. I explained the controls only. Nothing else. I gave her the link to our build and the playtest was done privately remotely over discord DMs

Goal(s):

The goal was to test the gameplay loop and game flow to understand how a player may encounter any issues when presented our game without us to guide them.

Playtester(s):

Holly W - RMIT Game Design 3rd Year student, Artist/Designer/Programmer, early 20s and is Tara’s good friend. Has extensive game experience and loves stardew valley.

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Holly expressed that she had trouble understanding all of the game mechanics at first but after a while (and through trial and error) she figured out how to play the game. She said it took her about 5 minutes to be fully confident on the game loop but she did say she was confused on what to do in the game.

Response: Maybe adding gameplay ui or a tutorial would help players feel more guided and confident on the core gameplay and game direction.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #2: Holly expressed that the art is beautiful and exactly how she imagined for the game. She also noted that the game aesthetic reminded her of slime rancher. She liked the bees and thought they were cute.

Response: A small quality of life change might be to add bee interactions like petting them.

Observation #3: Holly mentioned that the audiovisual feedback was lacking and there were a few satisfying interactions missing from the gameplay like animations.

Response: We should do more sound effects integration to help boost the audiovisuals and adding quality of life updates like animated models would make the gameplay more appealing

Changes Made: N/A

Playtest #6

Playtest Organizer(s): Tara and Zoey

Date: March 8th

Setting:

In person at OCAD’s class time slot on the large screen protector

Method:

We only offered small hints when asked by Evan. The rest of the time was addressing any feedback, ideas and concerns from the spectators. 

Goal(s):

We had some quality of life updates between the builds so we wanted to test that and get feedback from the OCAD students. This was to see the game loop clarity.

Playtester(s):

Evan - OCAD Student in 3D Game Design.

OCAD/UoT students observing Evan play and giving feedback in real time

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Evan clicked on the beehive a lot and there was no indication that it was empty so he quickly got frustrated and went exploring around the rest of the game area. 

Response: I think the beehive UI menu will be a great help with mitigating the lack of visual feedback from a hive being empty.

Observation #2: He mentioned that the alert ui was too fast to read, he mentioned that an activity list to keep track of progress and what the last alert was would be helpful.

Response: We should think about slowing down the alert animation or having it stay on the screen until a player removes it.

Observation #3: He skipped right past the control menu in the main menu and struggled to figure out what the different inputs were. Evan mentioned having a control indicator in game would be useful.

Response: I agree with the feedback he gave as I personally skip the controls in games I play and figure it out myself. I think having other ways to help players onboard into the game at the start will be helpful.

Observation #4: He wanted to put the bee jar on top of the hive and was disappointed that he couldn’t do that.

Response: I think we should consider where the jar and objects can be placed (and not placed) around the game area and the impacts this might have on player satisfaction and gameplay.

Observation #5: Students expressed wanting upgrades, different grass types giving bonuses to different flowers and the differences between the different honey products to be more obvious and explicit. They also mentioned wanting an encyclopedia about the products and flowers.

Response: Due to the scope of our game being quite a lot already, I think these ideas are wonderful but may be things we consider after the exhibition. I also think that these ideas stray a bit too far away from the core intention of our game which is taking care of the bees (and the encyclopedia idea may feel too much like a parody of slime rancher).

Observation #6: Students wished the selling system was more prominent with haggling and price fluctuation like the stock prices.

Response: While this is a fun idea and I like it, I think this pushes the balance we have with management and relaxation too far into the management tycoon grinding zone. It doesn’t feel like it adds to the caring for bees core of our game.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #7: A lot of spectators mentioned that the opacity for the model highlight was too high to appreciate the models and Evan agreed with this.

Response: This was the first playtest that we had the day/night cycle working and the highlight so it was good to hear the feedback around the visual aspects of the highlight. I think we will try lowering the opacity and maybe changing the highlight colours to match product honey colours.

Observation #8: Evan noticed and pointed out that the water shader only works from one side as it didn’t reach the edge of the dam at the back of the map. 

Response: This is something that I was aware of and I think adding a mesh that directly follows the contours of the river will help remove any visible edges and have the foam edging of the shader be more consistent.

Observation #9: Students mentioned that the day/night cycle animation point is really cute and a good idea but wished it was a bee buzzing up and down instead of an arrow.

Response: This is a really cute idea and it was good feedback for the visual look of the cycle tracker. I think the bee might lose the coherent colours and UI we have for all of the functional systems.

Observation #10: Students pointed out an inconsistency between the normals and height maps of the assets, wished it was more consistent and uniform.

Response: This is something to keep in mind as we spent a lot of time trying to make all of our artists work cohesive.

Observation #11: Wished for more customisation with the jar labels and lids as well as the different types of grass and ground textures.

Response: This is a really cute idea and is definitely something we want to look at in the future to flesh out the shop aspect to be more personal and to further the cosy and caring vibe for the bees. I think with our timeline, this is something to be looked at later.

Changes Made: We changed the opacity and colours on the highlight. We also altered the height maps on the house to match the rest of the game. We also redid the terrain to better integrate the need for more space and the river.

Playtest #7

Playtest Organizer(s): Tara

Date: March 8th - 9th

Setting:

First play was with no voice/video chat. Second play was with voice + stream.

Method:

I tested one version of the build, I gave him the Alpha 0.3 release which was a slight update from 0.2 the day before.I explained the controls only. Nothing else. I gave him the link to our build and the first playtest was done privately remotely over discord DMs

I engaged in conversation but spent most of the session observing how he was playing the game, the speed of understanding the core gameplay and any bugs he encountered

Goal(s):

The goal for this test was to QA test for bugs from another programmer's perspective that was outside of the team. We wanted to see if there were any bugs that we had not previously found.

Playtester(s):

Gyles W is a Civil Engineer & RMIT Game Design 3rd Year student, his specialty is Programming, he is in his late 20s and is Tara’s good friend. He plays games like minecraft and Civilisation VI.

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: He was confused on what to do (the gameplay loop) until it was explained to him briefly. 

Response: There needs to be some sort of tutorialization at the start of the game for onboarding. I think the UI book guide gameplay idea may help with this onboarding process.

Observation #2: He found a bug. If you are holding something white catalog is open and you click, the item you are holding will place.

Response: This has yet to be found by the team and I passed it onto our cs bees.

Observation #3: You can place flowers in the house, this is how the bees got stuck inside the house in the alpha presentation. The bees don’t always get stuck in the house when they enter.

Response: This was something that happened during the alpha presentation, it was good to see how this happened and that it is recreatable. I think having some sort of barrier that the bees cannot enter the house and the flowers cannot be played on anything that isn't the ground will resolve this.

Observation #4: He tried to escape the game boundary but there are no gaps that he found in the fence colliders.

Response: Further testing for the boundary will need to be done to ensure that it's water tight but it was good to see there isn’t any obvious or easy way to get out of the game map.

Observation #5: Sometimes when he hovered over the shipping bin it doesn’t open (the animation doesn’t trigger).

Response: This is something that needs to be looked at again as it is working and it is a lovely touch to the interactions.

Observation #6: He didn't mind the mouse click controls but did say it felt odd that the jar was E since he wanted to click on the hives.

Response: We want to be able to add picking up the hives so maybe clicking wouldn’t be ideal with hive interaction.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #7: He made many comments about how much he loved the bees and how adorable they were. He enjoyed when the bees would follow his flower around when he was holding one.

Response: I think we really hit the nail on optimal bee cuteness and adding bee petting and bee cam will just be the cherry on top.

Observation #8: He expressed that the night/day shift is very sudden so it caught him off guard a few times.

Response: I think adding a gradual sun movement shift would be ideal and slowing down the day/night cycle will help the abrupt change.

Observation #9: He noticed right away the beehives had different honey and mentioned it specifically. This is the first player to date that noticed it.

Response: We may need to look at other methods on making the differences in honey more obvious. Maybe the beehive collection UI will help this?

Changes Made: We did some bug fixing that were found in QA testing.

Iteration Cycle: Alpha release 0.4

Playtest #8

Playtest Organizer(s): Ali, Olivia, Salome, Tara and Zoey

Date: March 16th

Setting:

Discord Voice chat + Video + Streams

Method:

We gave the playtestors our build with a brief explanation about the game from Olivia before silently observing the playtest.

Goal(s):

The goal for this test is to test the iterations from our alpha build, in particular we wanted to see if there were any improvements on the onboarding experience and the gameplay loop clarity.

Playtester(s):

Collin (Ubisoft Toronto) - Games programmer

Shaked (Ubisoft Toronto) - Games programmer

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Shaked mentioned that the main menu music is really loud.

Response: Some of our playtesters in the past have mentioned that the game menu music is quite loud so we will take a look at the volume in the audio source and see how adjusting that helps.

Observation #2: The water can sit on top of the river.

Response: There is a collider on the river that allows the player to walk through it but it does not ignore items. We will probably need to look at some sort of tag system to fix that.

Observation #3: The day/night cycle stops visually changing after a lot of in-game days.

Response: I think this has resolved itself after we added the sun angle in. But it is something we will keep in mind for playing the game longer than 5-10 minutes.

Observation #4: They both noted that the jar empties its honey when it is placed on the ground.

Response: This is a bug that the team is aware of and is looking into! It just doesn’t wanna go away.

Observation #5: Bees kept getting stuck in the object colliders.

Response: This is something the team is aware of and is also looking into. We may also need to think about how close we want the players to be able to place objects together in the game area.

Observation #6: The shipping delivery and flower reset was not working in the build. 

Response: This was an error when trying to fix merges from the night before, this has since been resolved. It was working in the dev build previously.

Observation #7: Colin tried to sleep in the bed to skip the night cycle but it isn’t implemented yet. 

Response: This is something that we want to add to let the players be able to do this like in Minecraft and Stardew Valley.

Observation #8: The box animation was not working when Colin hovered a jar over it.

Response: This is a newer bug that the team is looking into resolving.

Observation #9: Shaked mentioned being a little lost about what to do in the game at first and suggested adding a journal with some small tasks to get a player started like in Stardew Valley.

Response: We want to try something like this and a few other ideas for the on boarding experience to see which works best for our game and our players.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #10: The water can UI was clear but it would be nice to have it paired with the water can inventory UI.

Response: I think adding the capacity ui to the inventory can ui will help make it more clear of its purpose and it make it more obvious to the player when it's full or running out.

Observation #11: Colin mentioned really enjoying the guide book but wished it was a pickable item that he can carry around, especially during the first few minutes of gameplay while he was learning the controls and gameplay loop.

Response: This is something that we will look into as it is a fun idea that we like and will help with the on boarding experience.

Observation #12: They both mentioned that the on boarding was a bit hard so having less at the start of the game as sort of a tutorial game area for the player to build off from will help with the feeling of overwhelm.

Response: This is something that we are aware of and are looking into different ideas on how to tutorialise the start of our game better.

Observation #13: Shaked mentioned wanting to be able to have decorations to upgrade, yard expansion and house upgrades.

Response: This is something that we wanted when we first created the outline for the game, these would be wonderful ideas for later on.

Observation #14: They really enjoyed the beehive menu UI but expressed that they should be able to see if a hive is full without checking inside the hive. Suggested adding a visual indicator outside of the hive about the hive’s fullness.

Response: This is also something that the team discussed having but it was not implemented yet as the beehive menu ui hadn’t been tested in front of players yet and we didn’t want to overcomplicate the script before testing what we had.

Observation #15: They both mentioned wanting to be able to interact with the bees more after seeing that the bees would follow them around if they had a flower in their hand.

Response: This is also something on our list to do for our beta. We have been wanting to do this from the very start of development but had to get our game loop and core mechanics down before visiting it.

Observation #16: Shaked mentioned that she wished there was more grass interaction and that we would lean into the customization by being able to change the house, the decorations, the grass, the fences, etc.

Response: We were interested to hear this feedback as it had not been mentioned before and goes wonderfully with the core idea of our game which is all about the bees and the garden.

Observation #17: Shaked suggested that we add bee adjacent game items such as fruit trees for jam and lean into giving the honey more purpose after it’s been produced.

Response: We were also excited about this feedback as it also went along with our game core and we were considering something similar but the fruit trees idea was a perfect addition to our product ideas.

Changes Made: We updated the timing for our day/night cycle, added in clouds that animate with the cycle and sun rotations that animate with the cycle. We also added fireflies at night and butterflies during the day.

Iteration Cycle: Beta Release 0.1

Playtest #9

Playtest Organizer(s): Ali, Olivia, Tara and Tenzin

Date: March 21st

Setting:

Discord voice + stream

Method:

We presented our Beta build to the playtesters, and let them play the game with minimal guidance.

Goal(s):

The goal of this playtest was to see if our first Beta build with all the functions of the game implemented and an in-game instructions manual would be easy to parse and fun to play for someone with no prior experience.

Playtester(s):

Jake Butineau (Freelance) - Audio Composer

Nick Perrin (Snowman Games) - Games Programmer

Kateryna (Gameloft Toronto) 

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Multiple of the playtesters noted that the main menu music is too loud.

Response: This was re-reported to the audio team.

Observation #2: Kateryna mentioned that she would have liked to press tab to move through the guide book, and take it with her as a pick-upable object for easy access.

Response: We were intrigued by this suggestion and decided to consider it for future builds.

Observation #3: Jake mentioned that he wanted to place things on top of other objects, and that it was uncomfortable that the pick-up system places things at your feet if you’re moving in certain directions.

Response: We noted that part of this was due to a bug that was also mentioned in previous playtests and made it a priority to fix.

Changes Made: The placing-on-feet bug was fixed the week after the playtest, and support for placing objects on top of items such as tables was also added shortly after.

Observation #4: Nick mentioned that the way the day music switches to the night music is jarring, and that it would be nice to have a more gradual change between the two songs.

Response: We noted this and made the audio team aware of this suggestion.

Changes Made: Gradual shift between day and night music has been added as a to-do for the audio team.

Observation #5: Kateryna mentioned that it would be more visually parsable if there was a more visible change in the flowers after being watered. Nick, in a similar spirit, mentioned that it would be more instructive to have beehives visually dripping honey when they’re full.

Response: We were excited to receive this feedback, especially the beehive feedback, as this seemed like a good idea for improving the QA of the beehive interaction.

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #1: All of the playtesters were confused at first as to what to do in the game, despite the guide book. Nick mentioned that an explicit tutorial that gradually teaches all the mechanics in the game would be a good way to mitigate this confusion and increase player retention. Jake mentioned that while the guide book looked beautiful, the strictly visual way the information is conveyed in the book can be hard to parse.

Response: We were surprised by this feedback and made better communication of the game mechanics a primary focus for the rest of our development process.

Observation #2: Kateryna mentioned that it would make sense to add more things for the bees to interact with, such as fruit trees into the game that grew after being pollinated and watered for a while. 

Response: We were intrigued by this suggestion and put it as a stretch goal for our project.

Observation #3: Nick and Jake mentioned that it would be great to have some ways in which the player can directly interact with bees, such as bee petting, as the fact that bees pollinate flowers that are held is really cute.

Response: We were really happy that the cuteness of the held flowers were shared by the playtesters, and along with Kateryna’s previous remark, agreed that more interactions with bees should be a stretch goal.

Observation #4: Nick suggested that we cut down on some of our features such as multiple bee types so that we can hone in on the already numerous core features that we have, and make sure that they are as easy and quick as possible for a new player to learn.

Response: We decided to make polishing and refining the main focus of the rest of our development, with minimal to no additions to the game before the release.

Playtest #10

Playtest Organizer(s): Tara 

Date: March 22nd

Setting:

Discord voice + stream

Method:

I was silent during the entire playtest and observed them play. 

Goal(s):

After the feedback from the beta presentation we wanted to put our beta in front of someone else to compare feedback as there were very little core differences between the ubisoft build and the beta but very different feedback was given.

Playtester(s):

Lizzie K is a Melbourne University Linguistics (Japanese/Arts) Graduate who is in their early 20s, is Tara’s best friend and plays games such as Minecraft, Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.

Observations — Rules (“Usability” and/or “QA”):

Observation #1: Lizzie had very little trouble understanding the gameplay and controls. They looked at the controls in the main menu and read the entire book (even noticed the tabs with different pages without my input)

Response: I think because of their game experience they were more comfortable and interpreted the guide book a lot easier. Further playtesting may need to happen to narrow down the best onboarding methods.

Observation #2: I was horrified to watch them buy as many flowers as the catalog allowed and plant every cm of the game area with flowers. We gave them too much power.

Response: We should consider how much stuff a player is allowed to put in the game area and if there is any feedback to doing that. Do we want to allow it? Encourage it?

Observations — Gameplay (“Appeal”):

Observation #3: They really liked the bees, the environment and loved the decorating. They mentioned that watering the flowers felt like they didn't really do anything to change the bees behavior or the flowers changing from it other than the vfx.

Response: I think adding the idea that if the flowers aren't watered they lose their colours and the bees aren't attracted to them anymore will definitely help give watering flowers a purpose.

Changes Made: We added a tree border to the map edge to stop it feeling like it’s floating.

General Feedback: 

Feedback from Beau in a public discord art server where Tara posted a gif of the watering system. This directly addressed our earliest feedback around people with apiphobia not being able to play our game.