Experience Update

This is the experience update, wherein I attempted to create an experience for the player in a new level in the game. The emotion I was trying to go for was that of awe and melancholy. I tried to create a sense of awe by designing a massive area that would be filled with statues and objects that dwarf the player, and I tried to create a sense of melancholy with music and certain aspects of the area that had a melancholy tone. I had hopes that when the experience ended, the player would be asking, "What was going on with that place? Why is this place here? I want to know more.

Unfortunately, I was not able to completely create the level, but I made enough to where it would be somewhat possible to convey the experience I wanted, and from the feedback I received, I was mildly successful at achieving this. However, it also succeeded in conveying emotions I did not anticipate, such as fear or surprise, and in one case elicited what I believe to be the exact opposite of what I was going for, giving off the feeling of insignificance (in a bad way) and that the player has hit rock bottom.

The feedback I received from those who playtested it, while most of it was expected, will be essential in making the level better and more able to convey the experience I have in mind. The main points were that the level needs more gameplay, more props and detail in the environment, and just more stuff in general. This was already known, as the level is still unfortunately not finished. However, I have multiple ideas for how to fill in the rest of the environment, such as adding more props to make the level feel less barren, adding more gameplay mechanics to make it more engaging for the player, and adding sound effects to add to the atmosphere of the level. The one good bit of feedback I received was that the atmosphere so far worked pretty well, particularly the music that I made for it.

I will be adding more to this level in the future, so be on the lookout for another update.