Documentation

Description:

I believe the final build of Run it down followed the concept presented in the concept document fairly good, some differences/changes in the final build is the growing force of the impulse, story/narrative and puzzles. Originally the impulse was going to be a set force, preserving the inspiration of rocket-jumping in TF2 but was I had decided to change it to a force based on how long you hold the mouse button, this made it more challenging and unique and kind of put a twist on the impulse ability. For the vibe I was trying to lay out, I don't think I did very well on it, as I had said on the concept document, I wanted a dark very lonely feeling kind of game. In the end, problems arose when I had made the scene darker and tried giving that feeling, I think that the tile map assests that i had used, weren't too good of a fit with what I initially had thought about.

Feedback summary:

During the testing session I had many people turning on Lindsay mode and I had noticed the checkmark was barely visible, I had also noticed a bug with falling spikes on level 1 where some of the red indicators would persist even after a spike fell.

Visual Appeal:

From a score of 1 to 10 the majority of testers had selected 8 and 9 , testers had said that the art style was consistent and a overall positive on visual appeal. 

Some people had said ways to enhance or add to visual appeal

• Death animation or particles when dying
• More variety/different colors

Level Design:

Between what levels tester had enjoyed the most, the majority had chosen both. Testers had enjoyed how level 1 eases players into the mechanics of the impulse ability. When asked what could be improved, most responses said it was fine.

Movement:

Testers had been asked from a scale of 1 to 5, how the player movement felt not including the impulse ability, a majority had voted for 4 out of 5.

Impulse Ability:

Testers had also been asked from a range of 1 to 5 how fast it took to understand the impulse ability, the majority had voted for 3 or in the middle. Another poll after asked how the impulse ability felt overall the majority had voted 3 out of 5. They were then asked why they chose the rating. 

Responses included were:

• After impulsing the players speed reduced very quickly.
• The Impulse was a bit hard to understand/master
• Having a Playground/Tutorial to play around with he impulse. 

Other:

Testers had been asked what they would add to the game if it was theirs.

• More movement capabilities
• different backgrounds
• Moving enemies and different obstacles
• a double impulse ability

Each element of feedback had made me realize that there is still so much I can do to improve the player experience, also I've realized that consistency isn't always key, like for example having different settings/backgrounds. In the final build of Run it down, Most of the feedback from the testing session had helped me focus on areas which needed improvement. A lot of features that were added were heavily influenced from feedback given from the testing session but also through weekly feedback. 

Asset List:

ChargeCircle - used for when the player charges their impulse ability - Made with piskel by me

Player Sprite - For player animation/design - itch.io. (2023). Character Animation Asset Pack. [online] Available at: https://muchopixels.itch.io/character-animation-asset-pack.

Boulder - Used for puzzle on level 2 - Deviantart.com. (2014). Boulder pixel art by TdeLeeuw on DeviantArt. [online] Available at: https://www.deviantart.com/tdeleeuw/art/Boulder-pixel-art-427731885 [Accessed 27 May 2025].

Tile map - All background and platforms - Maaot (2024). 2D DarkCave Assets. [online] itch.io. Available at: https://maaot.itch.io/2d-browncave-assets.

Font - Used on all UI font- Brackey (2024). Brackeys’ Platformer Bundle. [online] Available at: https://brackeysgames.itch.io/brackeys-platformer-bundle.

Music - Background music - Free Music (2020). Eric Skiff - Underclocked ♫ NO COPYRIGHT 8-bit Music + Background. [online] YouTube. Available at:

[Accessed 27 May 2025].

‌Impulse animation - An animation used when the player releases their mouse button - itch.io. (2024). 750 Effect and FX Pixel All. [online] Available at: https://bdragon1727.itch.io/750-effect-and-fx-pixel-all.

‌SoundFX - Jump and die SFX - created by me using - itch.io. (n.d.). ChipTone by SFBGames. [online] Available at: https://sfbgames.itch.io/chiptone.

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‌AI was used in the project, only for debugging purposes.