For this milestone, I designed tutorial levels and analyzed player feedback through their comments, expressions, and behaviors, through data analysis such as finding out how statistically significant our findings were and what were the standard deviations and standard errors from our playtests. This helped identify pain points and determine what players enjoyed. Using this data, I moved on to the next phase: developing skill atoms.

Skill Atoms Skill atoms break down the player's interactions with the game into fundamental skills. They help us structure the learning process, ensuring players aren’t overwhelmed by too much gameplay or narrative at once while maintaining a cohesive experience. Developing these was a challenge, as I had to consider every possible player interaction with puzzle elements while balancing difficulty progression.

Core Skill Atoms:

Here's all the skill atoms I came up with- 

This may seem like a lot of detail, but as developers, we must consider every possible player action and design with the learning curve in mind. By building our levels with this approach, we can minimize pain points and streamline the entire development process.

By developing these skill atoms, I was able to structure the learning curve and determine how many tutorial levels were necessary to teach each mechanic effectively. This approach ensured a steady difficulty ramp while keeping the experience engaging and intuitive. They also helped us determine the number of levels needed and adjust our scope based on the time remaining, our capabilities, and whether the vertical slice effectively conveys the intended experience.

With that information, we were able to develop our beat diagram consisting of both narrative and gameplay experience.