Hello! Thank you for reading the third and final devlog to Housekeeping Rumble. Once again, I'm Peng Chung, the solo developer of this project. By the time this post is released, the game will have released its version 0.6.2, as a web game! Unfortunately, the game's development has to come to an end as a prototype build, as I will be moving on to other projects (as well as my internship)! This post will be a short one , as I didn't have the energy to be updating the game. <_<

The build is attached to this dev blog, so have a look if you have the time! 

Balancing and Polishing

With the game's core mechanics at its most polished state possible,  game balancing and polishing is all that's left! One of the complaints that playtesters have is the lack of sound effects. Sound effects may be a minor feature to be implemented for some, but it is actually more significant to this game specifically - Sound effects serve as an audio cues, which can be effective feedback for players to execute attack combos smoothly. Take a look at one of the powerful combos that players can perform in game: Tornado Dance.

The Tornado Dance combo is triggered by doing LMB, LMB, LMB, RMB. LMB in this context triggers a Light Attack, while RMB triggers a Heavy Attack. As shown above, without sound effects, the combo strings mesh together, and it's not obvious to the players if they have triggered the intended numbers of LMB before they click RMB to trigger the combo. With sound effects, players can better tell how many LMBs they have triggered before to execute Tornado Dance. This significantly increases the success rate of playtesters executing Tornado Dance, adding to its satisfying audio feedback.

Moving Forward

After 11 weeks of development, the assignment has eventually reached its final conclusion. I am very thankful for all the playtesters who have participated in the playtest sessions to give valuable feedback, subsequently leading me to research into new game design concepts to make the game even more polished than I could have ever done. If there's one core lesson that I've learn from making this game, that would be "Feedback is essential to making the game feel more immersive and intuitive, whether that's visual or audio feedback." And, user feedback is just as important to make sure you're on the right path for designing the game experience you intended!

And that's all. Thank you for taking out the time to read such an extensive post. I hope this helps you gain some insights into the development of your own game projects too. All the best!

Best regards, 

Peng Chung <3