Play-test Analysis First Iteration (Mark Salinas)

The feedback from the first iteration has been a good balance between what went wrong and what went right. There was a good amount of positive feedback about the detail of the level layout despite it being not entirely finished. The two big problems involved the lighting and the difficulty of following a path. The lighting issue is mainly based on the heavy shadows of the structures and the shadows they cause. This can be fixed by adding an additional directional light source for the level, and we can face it away from the other directional light source. We can also disable the objects to not cast shadows, but it is important to not that we will only disable cast shadows for the whitebox layout, and we'll enable them again when the game is nearly complete. The path being difficult to follow makes sense, because the whole whitebox is on a large plane representing the top-down layout. The outdoor sections of the level don't have space yet for the player to feel like they are floating in space, so therefore the platforms in the outdoor sections don't seem of use yet. 

Finally, based on my thoughts of playing the first iteration of the game, I think the whitebox not only needs to be finished, but also better simulate structures of the space station. For example, there are parts of the level where there should be doors, windows, and etc. yet they currently weren't presented in the first iteration. Lastly, and this mainly applies to the portion of the level I whiteboxed, I should probably decrease the depth of the walls to add more space for the rooms in my section.

PlayTest FeedBack:

1st Playtester - The variety of walls and other objects are interesting. It started to remind me of the space station from among us, but they may just be me. Good job either way.

2nd Playtester - Like the level. I can definitely see this as a space station. It is hard to follow a path currently but I feel that is more do to lack of implementation rather than lack of design so I would not worry too much. Lighting could also be fixed as the shadows on walls can be pretty aggressive at times.

3rd Playtester - Your layout is well labeled! I like how distinctive some of the areas are from each other. Makes certain features stand out a lot :)       There are a few unmarked spaces here whose purpose is not made super clear 

4th Playtester - I like this level! The small corridors around the start of the level seem like they'll really support the sort of space horror aesthetic it feels like you're going for. The only suggestion I would have would be making sure the lighting looks good everywhere, because it was hard to orient myself in some of the areas since the walls were all in shadow.

5th Playtester - This level looks really cool in concept, though the path isn't super obvious yet. I'm excited to see what this looks like with the mechanics implemented. Definitely look into having some moody lighting in the station as I think that would help your level pop.

6th Playtester - I like that you actually gave a commented tour through the white box and appear to have a purpose to about everything. Y'all labeled everything decently well and it has some scale.