Week 13: the Final Steps

This week was all about polishing the game and getting all of the changes based on user feedback implemented.

Tutorial Overhaul

The tutorial was completely overhauled to be much easier for new players. All of the steps have been broken down so that the player is only prompted to do one task at a time. This prevents information overload. UI text was also added so that players always know what they need to do next in the tutorial, even if they skipped over the dialogue. 

There were also a few user errors that were due to unclear instructions or common misinterpretations, such as users inserting flux into the furnace, or people stacking the ingots atop of one another and trying to balance them when crafting an object. We decided to rectify these issues by adding dialogue that helped clear up said misconceptions.

Help Icon / Instructions

During testing we found that many players were confused with the process of making a sword. To fix this, we made a help button that the player can press at any time to bring up instructions. This also displays the controls. 

Throwing Objects Offscreen

A big issue we found in testing was people losing their items offscreen. We addressed this by adding triggers just outside of the camera's view that teleport items back to the table. This also makes Belak berate the player, which will be shown next. 

Belak Berate

A solution we found last week to giving player feedback on their actions was having Lord Belak Smith berate them with unique dialogue for different mistake they make. This can be humorous while also letting the player know when they make a mistake, such as trying to craft a sword with a cool ingot, whilst also hammering in (no pun intended) the fact that Belak is a massive jerk. This has been expanded to account for many more situations that the player might find themselves in:

• Putting flux in furnace.

• Throwing objects off screen.

• Failing an order.

•  Trying to submit ingots to the chest.

• Trying to submit hammer to the chest.

• Ending day when orders are still active (chat appears the next day).

•  Wrong components on anvil when striking it with hammer

• Ingots not hot enough when striking anvil with hammer

• Submitting a sword in the chest when there are no orders for that particular sword

• Submitting a sword that isn't sharp enough

End Day Button

To give players freedom on when they finish their day, we added an 'end day' button. As this action can have serious consequences on reputation, we made an 'are you sure' menu so that the player needs to confirm this action. 

Orders Fail at End of Day

When the day ends, all active orders are now automatically failed. This provides consequences for overcommitting on orders when the player doesn't have enough time to complete them all. It also sells the fact that the day is finished. 

Game Over Screen

To add consequences to the player, we added a game over screen for if their reputation reaches 0. 

If you hate Belak by now... we don't blame you.

Updated Shop UI

We updated shop button to look a bit nicer and fit in with the game's aesthetic. 

Implementation of New Weapons 

The two new weapon types, hammers and spears were fully implemented in this week's version, with the hammer being the most costly weapon a person can craft in the game. Spears on the other hand are the second-cheapest to craft, as they do not require flux to craft them. 

Overhaul of Ingots and Money

Whilst implementing our hammer weapon type (which included bronze and steel as part of their base recipe) we realised that we never implemented a proper recipe for bronze or steel ingots, which were initially planned to be craftable. Whilst we did throw around some ideas as to how to craft them, such as using coal in combination with iron or copper on the furnace, we decided that it would be easier to simply not include them, as we figured that making coal an ingredient as well as useful in the furnace would require too much testing.

As for money, we decided to streamline weapon and ingot costs, with a basic ingot tier (iron and copper), middle tier (cooler iron, seric, macguffinite, mythril and orcikhalkite) and high tier (everything else) which become exponentially more expensive. This means that the player will have to balance buying the more basic materials whilst saving enough money to afford the expensive and order-specific materials. Weapon prices have also been streamlined, as we decided to use a basic markup rule of 200% profit for the metal cost in regard to how much the weapons each sold for. 

More Order Variety

Finally we updated customer orders to use the large variety of weapons we created. This helps make the game more fun / interesting. 

Customer orders are not only more varied, but scale in difficulty and cost as orders progress through the weeks. For example, one person might start off ordering just an iron sword, but in the end, will order multiple weapons that use more expensive materials.

Conclusion

And that does it, the Sword Smithy prototype is now complete! Thanks for reading about our journey!

- Team Oresome