Week 13 (FINISHED!)
Hey guys! Final post for this unit, (exciting but sad)!
We have done some heavy play testing on our last assessment game, "Entropic Collapse"!
From this play testing we have gathered 6 sets of play test data with lots of useful data to modify the game to be more enjoyable and play smoother.
Most players found the game fun and the controls responsive, especially liking the physics-based movement and black hole mechanic. However, some struggled with managing the asteroid and black hole at once, calling it a "split-brain" challenge.
The bomb and shield enemies were consistently marked as the most difficult. A few players felt enemy spawns were unfair (e.g., spawning directly on the player or asteroids).
Most commonly players couldn't figure out when / why upgrades were happening. The current system used in all play tests was a small progress bar at the bottom of the screen which was hard to see and blended into the background. Players didn't see this and took a long time if ever to find the bar and understand it. This is the main thing that was fixed for the final version of the game.
Current progress bar shown below. Note how it blends in.
Upgrade menu shown above, added since last post, beautiful Ui graphics by my team member. Unique upgrades, more than 6 unique upgrades depending on the upgrade tree you pick!
Post Moterm
Postmortem
Our goal with Entropic Collapse was a fun, physics based fast paced game where you destroy enemies and get upgrades. This was completed by our team of 4 to major success, having all mechanics created and mostly polished. Sound effects, music, ui, graphics and coding all created by the team to best of our abilities. Feedback from play testers was utilized in every step of the creation of the game to ensure it was the best it could be.
What Went Right
Core movement felt fun — physics were clean, black hole + asteroid combo hit nice
Sound and visuals were great — menu background movement, particles, lighting all got good feedback
Upgrade system added a cool layer once people figured it out
Players said it was fun and would play again
Play testing gave solid direction, especially around UI and pacing
What Went Wrong
Rubble system + upgrades were confusing at first, not obvious enough
Bomb + shield enemies felt a bit unfair or hard to read
Tutorial was skipped by heaps — bottom text especially got ignored
Some UI bugs with upgrades showing after death
Difficulty ramp was too slow if you just avoided everything
Lessons Learned & Improvements
Tutorial needs better layout — bold important text, icons, maybe split into steps
Rubble needs clearer feedback (bar, upgrades, etc.)
Enemies need indicators — like shield recharge countdowns or bomb timers
Push players to actually engage with mechanics, not just dodge
Save time for polish: menus, transitions, end screens all add heaps of value
Thank you for reading these past 13 weeks, I personally had lots of fun learning GDevelop and expanding my game knowledge and skills, as well as reading the chapters assigned to us of the game design textbook.
Peace and love,
Alex



















