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Doom_Dude

Playtesting & Taking Notes

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Do you guys write down stuff when testing your maps or can you remember what needs to be fixed? Do you use a text file or paper or just lock it in the brain cells?

 

I always write down what I want to fix in my maps. I have a lot of scrap paper, so I just jot stuff down, otherwise id probably forget some most of it. Then I check off what I fixed / changed. Thankfully I don't need to write out a big long description to know what the fix is for. 99% of the time I fix stuff right away. If it's just a few things, then I can certainly remember that. Sometimes I'll go away for awhile, so having a list is a nice reference.

 

The other day I had a list that I didn't get to and I used a black sharpie on the other side and it obliterated my notes when it bled through making it unreadable. lol. There have been rare occasions when I found a list of map fixes in a pile of papers and nothing is checked off and I have no idea what map it's for... lol

 

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I use comments, which were introduced in GZDoom Builder (UDMF), to draw attention to various points, for instance

 

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gvFWTQR.png

 

Another advantage of this is that it forces one to correct those items before there are too many to cope with. :)

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I tend to take screenshots. Usually when going through them afterwards I can remember what the feedback was for each screenshot I took. 

 

Occasionally, if I'm in a chatty mood, I'll do a full commentary video play through and save it to YT. Nothing beats the sheer amount of good feedback you get from watching someone play your map.

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I usually only notice a handful of things at a time, so that's enough for me to keep in mind until I'm back in the editor. I make fixes right away, in most cases anyway. Even if it's more than a couple things at a time, I don't really need to write down any specifics, remembering the area I need to look at in the editor is usually enough to clue me in on what I was about to do.

 

A different thing for me is getting feedback from others, in which case I usually have the page with said feedback open, and go through it step by step, deciding what I'll change, and what I won't change.

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I do this exact same thing, with a stack of loose paper and a pen; and my scribbles are often quite similar. "Wrong tex at lower wall", "Change stim to medkit". Always incredibly vague, but I'm generally heading back to the editor immediately, and I know exactly what they were and where. Sometimes I'll find anywhere from 10-20 random little things while playtesting, so the notes help, otherwise I'd certainly forget half of them.

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On 7/11/2020 at 6:43 AM, Doom_Dude said:

Do you guys write down stuff when testing your maps or can you remember what needs to be fixed? Do you use a text file or paper or just lock it in the brain cells?

 

If I try to just remember problems that need to be fixed, even if they're particularly egregious, I'll usually forget some (or most) of those problems. So I have to do something right then.

 

If I'm watching a video of someone else playing my map, I'll write down notes on a piece of paper. (For example: switch by lift is S1 not SR, turn revenant 90 degrees, unpeg doortrak in end room, etc.) Then I'll fix the problems when I have a chance.

 

If I'm playing my map and I come across a simple problem (for example, a missing texture, noticed during the phase of "replay the map 100 times, each time thinking you've caught all the errors and the map is finally done"), what I'll usually do is fix it right then. As soon as is practical, I'll press escape, open the editor in a new window, fix the problem, save the file, and return to the game. No, it doesn't fix the map in-game, but it will correct the error for the next time. And it addresses the matter immediately.

 

If I'm playing a map and I come across a more complicated problem (for example, some sort of voodoo doll scrolling doesn't work quite right), I'll make a note of it and fix it later.

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On 7/11/2020 at 4:34 AM, Kappes Buur said:

I use comments, which were introduced in GZDoom Builder (UDMF), to draw attention to various points, for instance

 

gvFWTQR.png

 

It seems like it would take longer to open the enemy and add this comment than to open the enemy and change its thing type.

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I find immediately fixing things is really important to keeping the action items manageable, especially little things.  Writing the note to replace a texture often takes as long as it does to just fix it - so I think sometimes it's better to just keep in the editor and don't complicate the process.

 

For playtesting, I will usually move the player start so that I can test things on a per-encounter basis. This means that the number of things I think of to tweak is limited.  I will run the encounter as created 3-5 times, trying different routes, getting a feel for the edges of everything.  Then I'll make the big changes that I want to do - e.g.:

  • Level geometry is causing a lot of enemies to get stuck and not turn corners as I want them to, so I'll change geometry or add monster blocking lines
  • Hitscanners are infighting too much so I'll space them out, change the enemy type, or add geometry to prevent this
  • Monsters are getting into awkward places too much (for example, if the player is on a high ledge, I don't really want monsters right at the base because they can't shoot or be shot)
  • Or just anything else that sticks out as not fitting the design goals.

And then repeat the process until the encounter reaches the intended experience.  This keeps the note-taking down and makes the editing more efficient in my opinion.

 

This lets me leave it alone until I do the full-level playtesting at the end of the map, which does require taking notes since it's a longer endeavor, but by this point the core issues have already been solved.  I think this process would fall apart on complex, interconnected setups, where the time to test an individual encounter is longer, but I think the philosophy is probably sound and I imagine most mappers have their own takes on this.

 

What absolutely kills productivity for me is when I have multiple unfinished spaces with tons of notes on each (this is something that kills me in real life work too) - this causes a sort of analysis paralysis where there's so many things to adjust that it becomes hard to start on any, so I'm sure that influences how I break up my testing as well.

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On 7/11/2020 at 12:34 PM, Kappes Buur said:

comments, which were introduced in GZDoom Builder (UDMF),

 

Didn't know that - nice feature. Not sure Eureka or Slade do that and I am restricted (mostly) to Ubuntu for my editing stuff. 

 

To answer the post - I tend to have a text editor open (Ubuntu default 'Text Editor' or - if I am feeling particularly formatty - 'Remarkable' for markdown editing). As I already use GitHub for backup, I might move to using the GitHub 'Project Boards' feature - looks a lot like Trello if you know that and looks to be a useful project tracking tool. I use Trello at work so this would be an easy transition.

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