DevLog 6 - The Importance of Playtesting

Reason for this Update

The early development of this game provided an essential testing playground to understand what aspects of the gameplay players most enjoy and which cause the most friction, confusion, and annoyance. In DevLog 4, the cooking and crisping system received several user experience updates (based on player feedback). 

The most positive feedback thus far has been about the ingredient experimentation system. This temporary UI (which I had been using and intended solely for testing) displays the recipe that the computer recognises as one which most closely aligns with the currently implemented recipe array. After receiving such positive feedback, it will be a feature of the final game.

The most negative feedback is also related to the ingredient system: the method of pouring. The previous pouring method had players pick up their selected ingredient box (flour, water, oil, sugar, and butter) with mouse-click left and pour it out with mouse-click right. While on paper, this system worked, many of the playtesters struggled with the dexterous multitasking required. Additionally, I later discovered that some laptops cannot have mouse-click right and left pressed at the same time (which is especially important as the targeted demographic would likely be playing on their laptop without an additional mouse. Hence, the ingredient pouring system needed a total redesign. Another advantage of this redesign is that the players will not need to sort or collect ingredients from a cupboard and return them after use (it also can allow for more expansive storage capabilities without taking up additional game-world space.

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The Updated Pouring System

The new pouring system comprises three parts: The category dial selector, the specific ingredient tabs, and the tap which controls pour speed. The category dial selector splits the ingredients into five sections:

1. Field (represented by a wheat icon): The Baking Essentials
2. Orchard (represented by an apple icon): Fruits (and a carrot)
3. Farm (represented by an egg icon): Animal Produce
4. Flavour (represented by a vanilla flower icon): Sugar, Salt, Herbs, Chocolate, etc.
5. Nuts (represented by a peanut and pistachio icon): Four Different Nuts

When the dial selector is turned to one of these categories, a tab pops down, and the player is able to select ingredients from that category. However, using a rotatable dial poses a design challenge for a point-and-click-style game.

Figures 1 & 2: Ingredient Selection Device In-Game Screenshots

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Simple Design to Solve a Complex Problem

When designing games, there are often multiple methods of coding in a game engine. When I explored the different methods of turning the dial on the ingredient manager device, I thought of quite a few, including tracking the mouse’s screen position and recording the cursors’ position to chosen points in the game world (as I did for the oven dial). However, I felt neither of these methods satisfied what I was trying to create, and both seemed overly complicated for what I was trying to achieve. So, I took a step away from my laptop and asked myself what was needed for a wheel to exist in real life.

In the real world, when you grab a wheel, you intuitively know that if you pull downwards on the right side, it turns clockwise. However, you need to push upwards to rotate it clockwise on the left side. Similarly, pulling right moves it clockwise at the top of the wheel, but the reverse happens when pulling from the bottom. Keeping this in mind, I returned to my laptop to sketch a diagram. The black arrows in the diagram below show the pull direction required for a clockwise rotation for each quadrant. Using this logic, the game uses four colliders to detect the mouse's position relative to the wheel and translates mouse movement into wheel rotation.

Figure 3: The Required Pull Direction for each Quadrant on a Wheel

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Playtest Feedback

After reworking the ingredient pouring system over the past two weeks and having something playable, I had some more players to test the game feel. Overall, they immensely enjoyed using the system, with one noting how it felt tactile and intuitive despite having way more options than the previous method.

That’s all for now! The next devlog is coming on 28th February 2025.

- Stephen Rockett