Mapstermind Postmortem

Mapstermind is an asymmetrical couch co-op party game where a team of Piecelings must work together to complete tasks before time runs out while evading the player controlling the Mapster, who is a pair of floating hands with the goal of stalling the Piecelings until time runs out. The Piecelings scramble to return order to the stage by completing tasks while avoiding attacks launched by the Mapster. Through this our game encourages teamwork among the Piecelings through collaborative objectives, and fosters an intense yet lighthearted competition between them and the Mapster. Mapstermind features a cute and friendly art style that is synonymous with party games, a wonderful cast of characters for players to choose from, and is tailored to families and friends of all ages due to the fun yet competitive nature of the gameplay.

Since the my last blog post, the main focus for me has been balancing each system so that both the Mapster and Piecelings can have fun on the Seafloor stage. We started playtesting the Seafloor and City separately at QA so we could really evaluate how well everything was working on the Seafloor in isolation. It initially heavily Mapster favored, but by adjusting the cooldowns for the attacks and changing the speed and potency of the traps, we were able to create a better balance between the two sides while also keeping it fun for both.

Throughout the semester, our communication as a team was great. I frequently had meetings with the programmers and other designers to discuss changes that I had made and wanted to make and got very helpful feedback to make sure everything I wanted to change was in scope and fit into the intended experience. One specific scenario that I think we handled exceptionally well was the discovery of an exploit with the reset trap button where the Mapster could repeatedly use the jail cell trap then reset the traps to get more. This kept Piecelings from moving completely. We addressed this by changing the button to a clear trap button that the Mapster could use if they wanted to get rid of traps for any reason. To address the scenario that created the need for a reset trap button in the first place (the Mapster running out of traps too quickly), we adjusted the quantity of each trap so that they wouldn’t feel like they had too few, but they were still punished for misusing or spamming them.

While we did have solid communication generally, I do feel that we didn’t have enough talks with the entire team. It felt like the Seafloor and City teams were a little separate at times even though we were ultimately working towards similar goals. Outside of our design meetings, I also think that I personally did not do enough to foster communication between both teams. Towards the end of the project I think I should’ve offered help with the City stage and not restricted myself to the Seafloor. I felt that I was getting less to do over time and didn’t really do much to resolve it, instead just choosing to stay within what I perceived as the boundaries of my role as a systems designer on the Seafloor stage.

During my time working on Mapstermind, I learned that no matter what my role is, I can contribute to other parts of the project. I accepted assistance from just about everyone on the team to improve my work, but I didn’t give as much as I took in that department. In the future, I will try to be more proactive in figuring out what my team needs from me outside of my specific role. I also learned a lot about responding to QA feedback. No feedback should be viewed in isolation, as changing one thing that someone doesn’t like could harm somebody else’s experience. I have to find ways to solve problems without creating new ones. I often ended up changing cooldowns for attacks or the numbers of traps that Mapster gets instead of directly changing the potency of the effects because making them weaker would make one side feel better but the other one feel worse. It wasn’t always the effect itself that was problematic, but rather the frequency of the effect. The Mapster should feel powerful when they press a big button that spawns a whirlpool, but they shouldn’t be able to do it too often. That both makes it feel less oppressive and more impactful, making the Mapster think more about when they want to press the button without making them feel like they get “less fun” out of it.