It's always great to catch a devblog series near the beginning and I'm very glad I found this one because its very unique to anything I've played. Keep it up man
Great DevLog! I really like that fact you're taking a structured approach to development and focusing down on the mechanics before everything else! So many people don't get the foundation down first! GREAT work and if you ever need anyone else to help playtest id love to help out where i can!
100% agree with your approach and man, I love all of your structured documents, it's very inspiring! A lesson I learned with playtesting in the past -> make sure that a good chunk (but not all) of the playtesters are within your target audience for the game you're making. I made the mistake of asking random people from different game genres and platforms to play my game, and I received very confusing feedbacks that were not aligned with the direction of the game. It was hard to filter through the list of feedbacks and I felt like I wasted my time since my core target audience was drowned with all the other feedbacks. Now, I like to ask a question about the playtester's favorite genre (or what they usually play) in the form, so that I can better filter and contextualize (but not ignore) the feedbacks they provide if they are outside of my target audience. Food for thoughts! Thanks for the devlog
Thank you! 100% agree. I actually have that in the play test questionnaire. Since TetherGeist is going to be a pretty challenging platformer, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea..
Thank you! That's honestly exactly what we're going for. We want to take inspiration from Celeste (which we adore btw), but we still want to have an independent/unique identity and game.
I love how you're listening player feedback and just perfecting all of the mechanics and level design, really excited for the art devlog cause it's gonna bring the level together, but for now im gonna replay the game to see the minor changes. Good job and keep doing what you're doing!
As always, game looks great. Cant wait too see what happens with the artistic point of the tutorial level and think preparing charts beforehand for the playtesting was a very good idea, since sometimes people dont know what to write in specific except a few categorised stuff or how much they should write.
We're planning on releasing chapter 1 as our initial demo, then subsequent chapters to build on the demo. Somewhere between 1 to 3 of the 8 chapters will be in the free demo.
Great minds think alike. We actually already had that in! There's a split buffer in place that allows the player to push the split button while rejoining to immediately start another split once they're full rejoined. Oddly it still wasn't enough in our playtests so the few frames low G were needed.
Brilliant! I really like how you've approached getting player feedback. How are you addressing pillars such as predicting player input? That sounds difficult to me.
Wizardry ;) In all seriousness though, it's things like coyote time or input buffering. A couple examples: When the player is in the middle of rejoining with the spirit, if they push the split button again they are intending to start another split as soon as they've rejoined, even though technically they can't split right when they push the split button. So we have input buffering that will automatically start another split once the first rejoin sequence is over. Another example is how we're handling wall jumps. In our playtests, players would often use the joystick to steer away from the wall before they hit the jump button, causing Mae to fall off the wall before she had a chance to jump. So now we have about 10 frames of her "sticking" to the wall, allowing for players to steer their controls away from the wall before hitting jump, but still getting the expected behavior of Mae performing a wall jump.
@@OandCoGames fascinating. It seems to be all about working out places they player input may be off from the actual movement and allowing them to continue.
The designs you showed at the end look so good! How did you come up with those?! I'm having a real hard time right now redesigning my game before the release
Lots of research, motifs, and mood boards. Sometime in the future I'm hoping to have Rae release a video on this channel about hers and Noah's design process.
Great call out. We have a few frames where her run animation slows and she walks a tad, but it's so subtle. A deceleration animation would be super cool.
Hey man. Can you give us a template of the questionnaire/feedback documents you sent out to people for playtesting? I think it would be a good guide for me to do my playtests. Thank you.
It's always great to catch a devblog series near the beginning and I'm very glad I found this one because its very unique to anything I've played. Keep it up man
This game looks great, and you can really feel the attention to detail and care that the developers are putting into each and every aspect of it.
Great DevLog! I really like that fact you're taking a structured approach to development and focusing down on the mechanics before everything else! So many people don't get the foundation down first! GREAT work and if you ever need anyone else to help playtest id love to help out where i can!
Thank you! And for sure, we'll be reaching out on our discord server when we're ready for the next round of playtests.
From one UX designer to another, I'm hype about this game. You're doing great! 100% wishlisting on Steam.
100% agree with your approach and man, I love all of your structured documents, it's very inspiring!
A lesson I learned with playtesting in the past -> make sure that a good chunk (but not all) of the playtesters are within your target audience for the game you're making. I made the mistake of asking random people from different game genres and platforms to play my game, and I received very confusing feedbacks that were not aligned with the direction of the game. It was hard to filter through the list of feedbacks and I felt like I wasted my time since my core target audience was drowned with all the other feedbacks.
Now, I like to ask a question about the playtester's favorite genre (or what they usually play) in the form, so that I can better filter and contextualize (but not ignore) the feedbacks they provide if they are outside of my target audience.
Food for thoughts!
Thanks for the devlog
Thank you! 100% agree. I actually have that in the play test questionnaire. Since TetherGeist is going to be a pretty challenging platformer, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea..
The video was so great, I was literally like "wait it's alredy over?" when it ended
I’m loving the journey of this game’s development, keep it up!
This is my new favorite youtube channel!❤😃 Great job!
This feels so relaxing to watch. Thanks, dude!
Good Job!! Keeping up with all the DevLogs
Start with the basics and test often...love it! Easy to go down rabbit holes without having good guardrails in advance.
This looks incredible i like the feel of it, looks similair to celeste but yet different and i love that keep up the good work!!
Thank you! That's honestly exactly what we're going for. We want to take inspiration from Celeste (which we adore btw), but we still want to have an independent/unique identity and game.
Love where this game is going!
I love your systematic approach to playtesting and design principles! The game is looking great so far!
Can't wait for the art video!
I love how you're listening player feedback and just perfecting all of the mechanics and level design, really excited for the art devlog cause it's gonna bring the level together, but for now im gonna replay the game to see the minor changes. Good job and keep doing what you're doing!
We'll keep everyone posted on when we upload new builds!
excited to see what it looks like when all the art is in place
I forgot to comment on devlogs 0 and 1 when they came out, but the game looks great so far! Can’t wait to play it!
super excited to see the art when it's finished!
A game company that made adjustments based on what the players wanted?!? Good for you - keep up the hard work!
lol I know. We're crazy.
Great devlog! I love that you actually did a log like my suggestion! Thanks ❤
Looks great. I can't wait to see it with the final art!
I am interested to see what new abilities you add to compliment the tether mechanic, this looks looks fantastic!
That looks great! Good work
Interesting. Thanks mate.
This is highly insightful :D
Good progress! 🎮
As always, game looks great. Cant wait too see what happens with the artistic point of the tutorial level and think preparing charts beforehand for the playtesting was a very good idea, since sometimes people dont know what to write in specific except a few categorised stuff or how much they should write.
great work!
All videos so cool 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Very cool devlog and game
ooh! Another vid!!!
Loved the video. Have you thought about releasing each chapter as a "separate game" kind of like dlcs or as different storylines.
We're planning on releasing chapter 1 as our initial demo, then subsequent chapters to build on the demo. Somewhere between 1 to 3 of the 8 chapters will be in the free demo.
If you are searching for more playtesters, I would love to give it a chance, I love games like these.
Absolutely! We'll be reaching out on our discord server when we're ready for the next round of playtests.
Nice, I got all the Achievments as the first Person on Earth (atleast I think so because on the last Achievement stands 0% of Players completed it)
I wonder if a few frames of buffer time before the second ghost jump would solve the issue better
Great minds think alike. We actually already had that in! There's a split buffer in place that allows the player to push the split button while rejoining to immediately start another split once they're full rejoined. Oddly it still wasn't enough in our playtests so the few frames low G were needed.
Brilliant! I really like how you've approached getting player feedback. How are you addressing pillars such as predicting player input? That sounds difficult to me.
Wizardry ;)
In all seriousness though, it's things like coyote time or input buffering. A couple examples: When the player is in the middle of rejoining with the spirit, if they push the split button again they are intending to start another split as soon as they've rejoined, even though technically they can't split right when they push the split button. So we have input buffering that will automatically start another split once the first rejoin sequence is over. Another example is how we're handling wall jumps. In our playtests, players would often use the joystick to steer away from the wall before they hit the jump button, causing Mae to fall off the wall before she had a chance to jump. So now we have about 10 frames of her "sticking" to the wall, allowing for players to steer their controls away from the wall before hitting jump, but still getting the expected behavior of Mae performing a wall jump.
@@OandCoGames fascinating. It seems to be all about working out places they player input may be off from the actual movement and allowing them to continue.
@@Skeffles Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
The designs you showed at the end look so good! How did you come up with those?! I'm having a real hard time right now redesigning my game before the release
Lots of research, motifs, and mood boards. Sometime in the future I'm hoping to have Rae release a video on this channel about hers and Noah's design process.
@@OandCoGames That would be awesome!
Ah, yes, playtesting. This is why people make friends, right?
😅
i feel like your character is missing a decellarate animation, they can add so much flavor and character!
Great call out. We have a few frames where her run animation slows and she walks a tad, but it's so subtle. A deceleration animation would be super cool.
Do you think this will on switch?
Yup! Nintendo is our first console of choice after PC.
Hey man. Can you give us a template of the questionnaire/feedback documents you sent out to people for playtesting? I think it would be a good guide for me to do my playtests. Thank you.
Good idea. I'm thinking I might just do a whole video on how to conduct effective playtests.
This channel is soooo underrated.
I’m Rachel and Noah’s brother!
Which game it is at 0:07?
It’s a jam game we made called “Blueshift”
hello
Hi there... You're not a "hello" bot are you?
@@OandCoGames i am now
@@OandCoGames hello
@@bartek1887 😂
The animation of the character going through the walls is underwhelming. It’s the most repeated action yet it always looks the same.
That's a great call out. We should have a few different versions of the rejoin animation to keep the game feeling more interesting. Thanks!