Playtest Questions:
What upgrades/weapons would you like to see in the game?
Whenever a person buys an upgrade, there can be a visual aspect outlining the upgrade, such as a new interesting projectile or a visual cue of a new gun.
What was your favorite mechanic? How do you think it can be improved?
The ability to upgrade was nice and helped you feel rewarded for your efforts. The upgrades can be improved through UI work, showing whether upgrades have been maxed out, are in different tier levels, or even a hoverover explanation explaining what each upgrade can do for the player. I also enjoyed the creative time constraint of using a battery time limit rather than an actual timer.
What did you dislike and why?
The most frustrating thing for me was understanding what controls did what and what the motive was in general despite reading. That can easily be remedied by a quick recap of the controls of the game that I’m supposed to know and what my game objective is.
Did you feel like anything was missing and what?
-Adding a count of the robots to indicate to the player progression would make a big difference. I also felt that the robot AI could be a little bit better so that they are standing up instead of flopping around. Maybe an area indicator so they can shoot in the general direction of the player will make them more intimidating. Maybe some can even explode since the game is called “Atomic Robot”.
Was there something you tried to do but couldn’t?
I tried to find the objective of the game to complete it but what I only able to do was collect the parts by shooting the robots and finding the green upgrade machine. I wasn’t able to understand the overall game objective. This could be remedied by a quick little explanation like “Shoot all the robots within your battery life and find the green upgrade console!” to guide the player and give context
Did you find the art aesthetic to be cohesive?
Yes, the art style seemed quite effective and really gave across the environment the game is supposed to show. It also had a diversity of terrain so the environment wasn’t so boring.
Did the controls feel natural?
Yes, controls were quite intuitive with spacebar being an action button as in most games, the standard arrow keys, and the hover-commands (Press c to upgrade) to explain other non-intuitive controls.
Quick Bugs I found:
-Shot a robot multiple times and it gave a very large supply (which seemed bug-like) of parts instead of 2 at a time. - upgrade weapon power didn’t work after clicking (probably bug or needs to have aesthetic like a greyed-out option to close)
- negative percentage of battery reported
- When robots were killed next to a wall, the parts were scattered in or near the colliders so the player couldn’t get to them.