During the same week I worked on the initial friendly Ai that the player would command in the game, I wanted to get as much feedback on the base movement. I created a simple questionnaire with the questions you can see below and got a total of 6 people to play test, though in future QAs this will need to increase.
How did you feel about the movement?
Felt smooth, camera maybe a little too slow, running diagonally makes animation slightly weird with hops not touching floor sometimes but its minor and not noticeable unless extended running
Slow but grounded, I wouldn’t want it to be too much faster. Adjust speeds for going up inclines maybe?/ cap speed different direction (fastest forward running, slower everywhere else in the front 180 degrees and even slower in the back 180 degrees
Movement feels good, kind of feels awkward that you cant jump but I’d get used to it. Crouching off an edge gets you stuck. Including something in the game that speeds you up even slightly (even temporarily) could feel good
Movement felt good but sometimes I found myself changing the position of the camera and I didn’t like it. The sensitivity for me was a little too fast but that happens most games. I enjoyed the speed of the character.
Entering a tunnel while crouching is fine but if you let go of the crouch button, hold it again while leaving the tunnel pops you out standing while still holding crouch. Other than that the animation and controls were good.
Felt natural. Appreciated that the change from sprint to crouch was seamless. Very nice. For rotating around a point – looking around? – the character should step to turn.
Is there anything you feel is missing?
Crouching transition maybe?
Locking the camera so you can’t look straight up and straight down
Camera boundaries, better falling
I agree that the camera should be fixed/locked.
The movement animation for looking around while standing still
Crouching transition maybe?
Locking the camera so you can’t look straight up and straight down
How do you feel about the animations?
Animations felt very smooth to use with just some minor jitters etc
Awkward in some diagonal movement
Animations are great
Smooth, I am impressed 😊
They felt really nice and smooth. Also really responsive.
Really good, maybe slow down movement when moving uphill or even show that the character has a little struggle through animation
What do the animations make you think about the characters personality?
Makes the character feels innocent not hostile
The slow animations make the player feel passive.
Robotic and slow, no personality (which is the point I guess so.. good?)
I assumed it was a male and I don’t know why. I can understand the feeling of innocence and I would’ve like to know a bit more about my character. (Their backstory)
They feel sturdy and strong.
The walk and jog most definitely makes it look friendly and passive – I think keeping the limbs close to the body helped this so it does not look aggressive or confident. The crouch animation however seemed as though they were ready to attack – lil more of an aggressive stance as opposed to defensive
Below you can see one of the playtest that I screen recorded.
Takeaways and Fixes
- Have fixed limits on the camera (restrict player from going to far over and under the character)
- resize player capsule to get more accurate collisions
- Find fix to camera being obstructed and moved by objects in the environment
- Smooth out some animations in the the walking and running animations (some minute inputs can lead to the character carrying out weird movements)
Comments