Character Movement Interviews & User Testing

Introduction

As a platformer, players will benefit from more ways to navigate their environment. Additional moves will be added to the game to allow the player to navigate obstacles, enemies, and terrain in a more interesting way.

Propose

In order to achieve a more complete implementation involving the design of actions that can be used by players by default, four user interviews were conducted before the redesign work.

What preparations have been made

1. Double Jump & Instant Jump

• Conducted some research on game character movements (watched a lot of gameplay videos)
• Prepare interview questions on the user experience of the game characters
• Invite 4 test users (They have all played a lot of games)

2. Rolling & Wall Jump

• Design an initial animation for each one after research.
• Observe the interviewers’ feelings and take constructive opinions.
• Redesign work based on feedback.

questionnaire

1. Double Jump & Instant Jump

• Which of the action games impressed you the most
• Which aspect of the character movement design in this game you found interesting
• For the 'double jump' and 'instant drop' character moves, what else do you imagine them to be, without the games you've been exposed to

Result

Double Jump & Instant Jump.

Q1:

• Interviewee 1：I was very impressed with Moonlight Blade, a Chinese computer game with 3d action based on an ancient Chinese setting. The game is played using real-life anthropomorphism and has individual character expressions. In this game, the player can perform basic actions such as running/fighting/jumping (including two jumps).
• Interviewee 2：Honkai Impact 3 is a 3d game that I play a lot. It has a more complete storyline, no single protagonist perspective, and the ability to change characters at any time during the game.
• Interviewee 3：I am very impressed with the Final Fantasy series of games. The fact that it belongs to the action-adventure genre, which is operated via the gamepad, is more comfortable compared to pc and mobile, as you basically don't press on the wrong keynote.
• Interviewee 4: Fall Guys is a multiplayer action game where you compete against multiple players on a single server to achieve victory. There is no complicated action in this game, we just need to control the character to keep running forward.

Q2:

• Interviewee 1：There are many different servers, so players can see and communicate with different players on the same map (speak and body)
• Interviewee 2： During the game, each character has a different movement behavior, some are running and some are floating (?). (I'm not sure about this word, it probably means floating) which was interesting because it allowed me to distinguish each person's character very well.
• Interviewee 3: In this game as a user you can also control different characters at the same time, which is not possible in the real world.
• Interviewee 4: The reasons for retiring from the game range from simply because someone else is too good and I can't beat them, in other words, I can win when I practice a map over and over again (but this map is randomly generated) Also this game is very involved and it's fun to see how other players' mucking up can be done against me in a large 60 player field game.

Q3:

• Interviewee 1：If removed from the game setting, I can also imagine the feel and visual effects of jumps and falls. For instant drop, it might be similar to the feeling of bungee jumping or skydiving, they have a fast factor and visual effects. For the two-stage jump, as a kid, I would watch a lot of Chinese action movies and some of the martial arts stars had much sharper and simpler moves, and these Chinese elements far outweighed the game.
• Interviewee 2：Other than the gameplay aspect I can imagine a two-step jump or instant drop state. For the two-step jump, it would probably be better implemented in our space, where there is no oxygen, and the instant drop would probably be more like doing a slightly slower freefall after you've finished rock climbing.
• Interviewee 3：For instant drop and double jump, the instant drop may happen when you step off the stairs, and the double jump may be done when you dive, as the buoyancy in the water will be so high that you can reach the double jump when you gently apply force to your feet.
• Interviewee 4: Apart from the game I can't imagine falling fast, although in the game when I failed my character was falling fast but it didn't give me the same feeling.

Rolling & Wall Jump

Rolling

• U1: I think this character is so cute and the animation was smoothly especially the wind makes it so vivid.
• U2: This animation looks great, however, it was a bit monotonous, I think can add some special effects to set up.
• U3: The wind color scheme fits the character, and the animation was doing good.

Wall Jump

• U1: The action was relevant which is good, but the whole action was a bot boring as it did only jump back and forth. Tt has to take a long time to do this animation, if there is deep hole.
• U2: Also as the Rolling animation, it could be more beautiful visually.
• U3: I think it is above average, if this action can be completed in a very short time, it's gonna be perfect. Because I usually do not like to spend a long time doing the same action.

Conclusion

1. Rolling & Wall Jump features

• Rolling

• Wall Jump

• Double Jump

• Instant Drop