Destruction Darius 2 hit its next major milestone recently when it underwent its first playtesting
session from other people, with a complete island full of levels and highscores. I know
it’s been months since the last video, I’ll quickly get you up to speed on progress.
Firstly, I could have reached this within weeks but it took a lot longer because firstly
I’m busy with other things and secondly it’s been hard progress. I’ve not been
adding new and exciting things to the game. I’ve been fixing what’s already there
in a long-winded process of testing, finding a small bug, trying to fix it and by crushing
any extra bugs that pop up along the way. Yes, I know you’ll judge me for this. Because
if you were to ever make a game you’d be able to skip this stage because it would all
be perfect first time. Maybe you haven’t ever finished making a game yourself, but
that unfinished game you’re working is probably beautifully tidy. Good for you! But for me,
once I reach a certain stage of playtesting, no matter how hard I try, every bit begins
conflicting with other stuff and in the most unexpected and unimaginable ways! But I like
it because although it’s disheartening whenever you find a bug in a bit you thought was finished,
fixing it is even more rewarding than the earlier stages of working on the game because
the fixes often need to be more imaginative and challenging.
Let me give you an example: I made a speedrun mode unlock once you’ve completed an island,
that forces you to beat it again in one sitting. I then decided a destruction mode would also
be good- but didn’t want it to conflict with the speedrun bit, so instead of making
it from scratch I just copied the speedrun bit and changed it to suit destruction mode.
Doing this saves a lot of work, avoids a lot of the problems I already fixed the first
time and ensures that the two gamemodes never conflict with each other. But playtesting
revealed all manner of other bugs that popped up from this process!
Take the end of level flag- the thing you reach and it ends the level. This doesn’t
need to exist in the destruction game type. But the camera pan when you start the level
flies from this point to your start point, so I’d have to rewrite this bit for Destruction
Mode as well… or just position the flag on the player so it doesn’t appear to pan
at all. So I did that. But then this lead to other problems, since in the playtesting
stage, people realised that as long as the player was stood in his spawn position he
was invincible. Why? Because once you reach the flag normally it makes you invincible
otherwise you could die after you’ve finished it, messing everything up. So I had to botch
this fix as well. So there you go. A seemingly simple decision
has far-reaching consequences. This has happened dozens of times in Destruction Darius 2 so
far. Every time I fix a bug I think that’s it, only to then find another that’s caused
by this later on. The only way I can really think of to avoid this is to prepare for every
gameplay element and every problem from the moment you start the project. But that makes
everything so complicated compared with just working on one bit at a time and doesn’t
guarantee you’ll avoid these problems any way. And you miss out on all the cool ideas
you have for the game after you’ve already begun development on it.
The solution is to set aside plenty of development time for playtesting. Much more than you might
initially think. I really think this is why most games are delayed or released in a buggy
state. It’s good to know it even takes professionals by surprise.
Any way. Playtesting time. On the train back home from my mini-holiday- something that
takes just under 2 hours- I made an island and its levels from scratch, using the built-in
editing tools I’ve made. I played through each level until I felt I had achieved a very
good score, then I set the gold and silver times based on that. Once I got home I then
sent it off to two friends to playtest. It's easy to get carried away and to proudly
send your creation to loads of people as soon as possible. But I’m staggering it with
Destruction Darius 2. I want to reserve new playtesters for every stage so I don’t lose
sight of what it’s like for a new player to jump in to the game for the first time.
But right now the game is far too buggy and unpolished to subject brand new players to,
so I let two experienced Destruction Darius players, ‘The Cat of War’ and ‘Dennis
Stanistan’, test it. Because the core gameplay is already in place and in need of testing,
from the individual levels right up to the island campaign. And it’s still early enough
to change almost everything based on feedback. I still watched them livestream their first
attempt. Here are some clips and your first
proper look at what a campaign in this game will feel like.
Oh I like the way it scrolls across so you can see your goal at the end.
Uh, click? Where do I- Ah, space. Gotcha.
Uh, what do I press? Uh, oh- I don't know what I clicked to get into the thing.
OH SHI-
Oh. Oh! OH!!!!
52% out of- I've got to destroy all of these over here. Just for the score haven't I-
I'm probably taking too long- I'm no speedrunner! Oh, yeah that's probably why I shouldn't have done that.
Trust me Philip. I've got this.
Nope! I don't. I dunno, it's all jittery 'n shit.
So, I know the game’s more broken than I thought it was. Which is better than not knowing.
So I’ll fix everything that they’ve mentioned, will add some more stuff and will ready it
for playtesting stage 2. A process I feel will repeat until it’s ready to be released.
And although the end feels further away with every day I invest into Destruction Darius
2, I know I’m making progress.
OH THIS ONE'S EASY