Graveyard levels Test

 Testing 

I got a player to play through both levels and then interviewed them. 

In the first level, the test player stated that it was quite a somber atmosphere. They felt that the indirect nature of communication from the owls only made them want to talk to them more, driving them forward. The player noticed after the first two sets of spirits that they were only speaking with each other. She felt the atmosphere was quite bleak but somewhat relaxing. 

In the second level, she noticed instantly that they were no longer in pairs and this time were alone and could be interacted with. After a few conversations with the owl spirits, she noticed the heads were following her and stated that she was instantly unsettled. She added that this was the main feature that made her want to run through the rest of the level. She feels she had a strong reaction to this because she had gone a while in a false sense of security, and the change was noticed naturally. Catching that movement in the corner of her eye made her feel more unsettled. 

I asked which of the two levels she preferred for atmosphere and emotional impact. She said that it was by far the second level, however she does not feel that she would have gotten the same impact if it was not for the first level setting that atmosphere up.  This was the part I was most intrigued in, as realistically other than in a testing format, repeating the same area in that way is not standard practice for games.. However, there may be ways in which I can use that tactic to set up a similar response in a singular map.