Hello, we are 4 game design students from the University of Paul Valéry in France, and for today's class we had to evaluate an itch.io game that asked for a feedback. We choosed your game because we thought it was a nice game that deserved our attention :)
We made a playtest with three other testers by making them play 15minutes each and questionning them on various aspects.
Here is our final review :
UI & Menu
✅ Positive:
- The menu is easy to navigate, they had no trouble accessing the tutorial.
- The artistic direction sets a great mood, making the game visually appealing.
- The dialogue box is well-integrated and clear.
❌ Negative:
- The HP and mana bars are not very noticeable—some of them didn’t even realize the mana bar was there.
- Players tend to focus on the top of the screen, so key UI elements at the bottom might be overlooked.
💡 Recommendations:
- Swap the top and bottom UI elements (Crystals/Lives and HP/Mana) for better readability.
- Make the mana bar stand out more, maybe with an animation or color contrast.
Narration
✅ Positive:
- The introduction scene effectively sets up the story.
- Short in-game messages help reinforce the objectives and make the lore easy to understand.
❌ Negative:
- The "How to Play" page feels unnecessary—most players either skipped it or found it redundant after the introduction.
💡 Recommendations:
- Replace the "How to Play" page with a control mapping screen.
- Allow players to skip the introduction scene after their first playthrough.
Gameplay
✅ Positive:
- Objectives are clear, and we quickly understood the core gameplay loop.
- Exploration is fun, and the game offers several interactive elements (candles, crystals, btw there is a misspelling on "cyrstals").
❌ Negative:
- Spells are underused—some of us completed the first few levels without using them.
- The first level feels too punishing, making early gameplay frustrating.
- The game can become repetitive since the difficulty remains the same throughout.
- Major bug: Pressing "R" skips scenes, allowing players to finish the game in seconds.
- After dying, some spells disappear or don’t work properly, and magic wands don’t always respawn.
💡 Recommendations:
- Introduce a more useful early-game spell (e.g., an attack spell instead of "grab distant items").
- Balance the first level’s difficulty to make it less frustrating.
- Ensure spells are needed for progression to make them feel meaningful.
- Fix the "R" key bug and make sure spells persist after death.
- Guarantee that magic wands and spells respawn consistently.
Characters & Feedback
✅ Positive:
- Character designs are strong and give the game a unique identity.
- The player's animations convey emotions (fear, hurt, happiness) well.
❌ Negative:
- The feedback for losing a heart isn’t clear enough—it can be easy to miss.
- Some interactive elements don’t provide clear feedback, making them feel useless.
- The purpose of crystals is unclear.
💡 Recommendations:
- Improve visual and audio feedback when losing a heart (e.g., a flashing effect or sound cue).
- Add a clearer visual effect or text prompt when collecting crystals to explain their use.
- Ensure all interactive objects provide noticeable feedback.
Environment & Ambiance
✅ Positive:
- The cute, rustic, and pastoral art style gives the game a distinct charm.
- Exploring the environment is enjoyable, and there are plenty of details to discover.
- The music fits well and adds to the atmosphere.
❌ Negative:
- Some objects, like bushes, aren’t visually distinct enough, making them confusing.
- Some colors lack contrast, making certain elements hard to see.
💡 Recommendations:
- Improve the contrast of important objects (bushes, interactive elements).
- Add subtle visual indicators (glows, highlights) to show interactive objects.
Enemies & Interactives
✅ Positive:
- There is a nice variety of enemies.
- The mechanic of transforming monsters into objects is fun and unique.
❌ Negative:
- Enemy colors are not always distinctive, making it harder to tell them apart.
- Some of us didn’t realize that pumpkins were shooting projectiles.
- If we stay in certain areas of the map, we can avoid most obstacles.
💡 Recommendations:
- Improve enemy color contrast to make them more visually distinct.
- Add clearer animations or sound cues before pumpkins shoot projectiles.
- Adjust enemy placement and level design to prevent players from avoiding challenges too easily.
To end this review, here are some quotes that our testers told : "The character's voice is cute." ; "The trees are dancing !" ; "Wow there are so many enemies" ; "I want more spells to cast !"
If you enjoyed this User Research review as much as we enjoyed making a playtest of yours, you can check our itch.io accounts : https://leovoi.itch.io/, https://vincentvolage.itch.io/, https://ornylove.itch.io/, https://makollection-de-jeux.itch.io/
Have a nice day ! :))))