THIS WEEK AT HYPEROID - 05/05/2023

This Week At Hyperoid, we are back from our short hiatus.

TL;DR

We took a short hiatus but now we are back. Later on in this article, we will share some statistics on the Project Eris demo and its feedback. There has been work going on in the background for Project Eris and we will also be getting into what the upcoming months will look like.

Did You Miss Me?

I’m back. After a short hiatus of a few weeks, I am back. This was needed in order to fully focus on personal matters. Especially after the crunching period that I went through trying to release the Project Eris demo on time. I couldn’t delay it any longer.

I just want to use this moment to thank everyone who has downloaded and tried the demo out. It truly does mean a lot. If you are new here, welcome. I thank you for joining me on this journey to make Project Eris the best project it can ever be.

Some Statistics And Outlooks

As the feedback period slowly draws to an end, I wanted to share some statistics on the Project Eris demo and the feedback that it has received. Also, I never really did mention when this ‘feedback period‘ was going to end did I? May 11th 2023. That’s when feedback on the demo will stop being collected and it will be used to polish the demo. Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty…

There were 42 downloads in total on iOS and Android combined. 30 for iOS and 12 for Android (I guess it was worth going through all of that hassle releasing for iOS after all). Of those downloads, only 3 gave feedback… The amount of downloads for the demo exceeded my expectations. I was expecting half of what there is now, even less to be honest. Now not all of these downloads converted to feedback, in reality it was much less. Most who tried the demo were probably completely oblivious to providing feedback. This has been noted for the polished version of the demo and there will be a way of providing feedback in-game.

When collecting feedback, there were three high level aspects I was looking for:

  • How did it feel to use abilities?
  • Was fighting hostile combatants challenging?
  • Were puzzles and mechanics fun to engage with?

All these aspects of feedback were measured on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being extremely boring and 10 being extremely fun. There was also room to leave additional comments, which we will come to later on. 

1. How did it feel to use abilities?

Figure 1: Chart showing how satisfied respondents felt when using abilities.

  • Most respondents found that using abilities was not really fun. 
  • Looking back, you are only constricted to one set of abilities. After using them a lot, it can feel a bit repetitive. 
  • That is why a big focus for the polished demo is to give the player an arsenal of abilities to choose from. Players may even get to build around their own playstyle ;D

2. Was fighting hostile combatants challenging?

Figure 2: Chart showing how challenging it was for respondents to fight combatants.

  • All respondents felt that fighting combatants was more towards the challenging side of the scale. 
  • The team has had discussions regarding difficulty levels for the polished demo, and we are still not clear on this. 
  • Higher difficulties will of course pose more challenge for the player. However, our goal for a normal difficulty is to make it so that the player will have to engage themselves enough and not be able to pub stomp every combatant that comes their way. We are willing to experiment with this.

3. Were puzzles and mechanics fun to engage with?

Figure 3: Chart showing how engaging puzzles and mechanics were for respondents.

  • Most respondents found puzzles and mechanics not really engaging. 
  • In my opinion, the response on this aspect of the demo would have been better if some sort of navigation system existed. This was a main problem for level progression, as you will read later on. 
  • Rest assured, we are trying to design encounters that are much more engaging for the player in the polished demo.

Respondents also left additional comments too, going into further detail about the feedback that was given. A top problem that was stated was that navigation was difficult and that there was no sense of guidance within the level itself. Other suggestions were that the combat could use some improvements such as having some visual indications for attacks. There was also mention of having more clearer sound effects whilst being in combat too. Taking all of this into account, a navigation system is something that is a top priority for the polished demo. We are also discussing ways in which visual/audio feedback can be conveyed to the player so that fights can feel more responsive and enticing.

Behind The Scenes

Now with all of the numbers out of the way, I wanted to talk about what is happening now and what the upcoming months will look like.

Behind the scenes, we have discussed the main systems that will need to be implemented for the polished demo. Some details about these systems have been discussed as well and we cannot contain our excitement for what’s to come. In the coming weeks I plan to release a roadmap and some more details about the changes coming to the polished demo. I will be doing this all while designing and implementing these changes into the game itself.

Development of these changes are planned to be finished by the end of summer, this year. Now that is only the plan and it would be the best case scenario. So, to leave room for contingencies, if the initial time frame cannot be reached then all these changes should definitely be finished by early Q4 of this year.

Closing Thoughts

Whew. That was a big one. Even though things may have seemed to be quiet regarding Hyperoid and Project Eris, I still remain committed to seeing this project through. My head is always exploding with ideas. The thought of carrying out an endeavour this big is frightening, but much more exciting at the same time…

“This is Hyper, signing out.”

Hyper