Hello! It's time for a new devlog.
For the playtest in December our solo-dev implemented a nifty feedback tool. You've probably seen something similar before if you've tried out games that are in Early Access, but this was the first time we utilized such a system.
And you guys definitely used it! We got a lot of feedback covering all aspects of the game. I won't cover any straight up bug reports (couldn't play online, controller not recognized) here, as these required some minor fixes.
Feedback Top 3!
1. Keybinds
2. Invisible Finishing Goal Block?
3. More game modes?
Keybinds
The first and most common feedback by far was the default keyboard keybinds. To any gamer who plays mainly with a keyboard and mouse, the default controls seem very unintuitive. WASD is movement, but spacebar isn't the jump key? And you're absolutely right. The keyboard keybinds are indeed horrible.
The cause of this is actually pretty straightforward: the developers aren't really PC gamers! They all come from a background of playing with controllers, and thus the initial development team used controllers to prototype and test the game. Any new members of the team acquired controllers to test the game (including me, an avid PC gamer...) and the keyboard controls were left untouched.
This is an oversight, and the default keybinds will be much improved for the final release!
Invisible Finishing Goal Block
That floating, spinning, iridescent block that every Blocky seeks to reach before the other Blockies... it was missing from several levels! A lot of you pointed this out, and it's been a frequent report internally too.
But, it's not actually missing. Those levels aren't race-to-the-finish levels, they're actually last-block-standing levels! They were left in the playtest for variety and feedback reasons, but ultimately they mostly confused players. Moving forward, the type of level will be clearly communicated during gameplay. It’s also clear there needs to be some sort of urgency mechanic (like rising lava) to make sure players don’t just build small fortresses and sit there forever.
Game modes
Another thing a lot of our feedback mentioned was excitement for upcoming game modes! This is definitely on the roadmap, and has been given higher priority thanks to the feedback we’ve received.
That’s it for today! We’ll talk more about upcoming plans and ideas for how to expand the game in an upcoming devlog, so stay tuned!
