What went well? Is the theme well represented?
I built a game in an engine I have very little experience with and that has interactivity and sound all within the confines of one week. That went well. I do feel that the theme is represented to a small degree. The last time Aili playtested this game for me she was taking small steps when passing the openings in the pyramid. When I asked her about it she said she was doing that because she wanted to get past the openings. To me it seems she was apprehensive about passing the openings, which is similar to fear.
What went wrong? Could the game better represent the theme?
The game isn’t much of a game. You just go until you die, and not even in an infinite runner type way. There is no way to avoid dying when you pass the chosen opening, so there is no real player agency in the game. While the game does a better job of communicating to the player what is happening, I still think it is disappointing at the end for the player when they meet their fate and they realize there is nothing they could have done to avoid it. I think providing reason for the player to hope that they could escape their fate would help to amplify that feeling of fear when they are progressing through dangerous areas.
What did you learn?
It is important to communicate to the player, as soon as possible, the situation before them. In the first round with this game, when I asked my family to playtest it, Kheara saw the large dark openings in the pyramid as an opportunity for exploration. That is not at all what I put them there for. On the next round I had placed an animated monster tail/tentacle thing and a low growl and screenshake when the player approaches that first opening. This worked better in communicating the danger ahead than just having a dark opening.
