Before our last playtest, we implemented door variations: unlockable, openable, forever locked and doors that can be opened from one side. This was based on a plan to have the doors guide the player towards the puzzles linearly. Due to a lack of time to refine before the planned playtesting session, the doors were changed to be open. During playtesting, people enjoyed being able to escape into any room they wanted to so we decided to keep the doors open.

All doors being open led to players becoming lost easily, so we implemented a map to guide the player. The second playtesting session with our new build that has the map implemented evoked more positive responses than the previous build, which confirms that the changes made to add clarity did help. The feedback also helped to reveal more weaknesses with clarity. As a team, we implemented suggestions from the playtesting to further improve the game experience.

These are the issues with clarity we worked on:

• Yellow highlight added to objects you can interact with 
• UI changes → Tab to open map and Shift to sprint icon added, Press T to Time Travel moved to the bottom centre of the screen instead of the left, as it’s easier to see
• The objective now appears in the middle of the screen for a few seconds and then disappears, instead of constantly being in the top left corner → players used to not realise there was an objective because it was in a place on the screen you don’t usually look at

We also improved the flow and clarity of the monster intro section of the game by adding to it, as it was only recently implemented and needed more time to refine. We started drafting concepts for a new monster design, as the current monster didn’t suit the story and aesthetic direction of the game.

We also experimented with a new mechanic of being able to lock and unlock doors to try to slow down the monster. However, after testing we concluded that being able to time travel was much more effective at escaping the monster and wasn’t needed.