So, our game has had two play-tests now. I managed to get the menu systems implemented completely before the second one so that we at least have the menus. Outside of that, I'm just waiting on our artist to get the various art assets to me so I can put them in. So onto the play-tests.
The first play-test was interesting because of an issue that we had with the light masking of the platforms in that the platforms were pretty much visible from any distance, making the original aim of the game moot. Our torches also never went away, and because there was infinite of them for testing purposes, they also shot any difficulty in the foot. The last encountered issue was a matter of our falling platforms generating at the bottom of the screen and giving no opportunity to actually get off of them before "dying". We managed to fix all of these issues to some extent before the second play-test.
We changed the light masking so that it doesn't show the platforms until they are actually touching it and toned down the brightness slightly. The torches actually go away after just a few seconds. The background has been implemented finally and everything seems to be working.
The general consensus for the second play-test has been positive for most aspects. The only issue that we have had was the light masking was good, although still too bright for most people. The other was adding some UI elements like the number of torches the player has left and a score system. Overall, not much that we really have to do and I think we will have a finished game by the end of all this.
