This week, our team delivered the halves presentation.

Team Reflection

The feedback we received was mostly in the range of meeting expectations or below expectations. After discussing with our instructors, we identified several possible reasons. We realized that our presentation lacked sufficient documentation and insights from our playtesting sessions. In addition, since faculty members haven’t been able to frequently test our project in the CAVERN room, they were not fully aware of how much progress we have made since the last check-in.

To address this, we plan to improve how we communicate progress by showing clearer evidence of iteration and playtesting results in future updates.

Design and Development

During this week’s development, the team explored new ways to make the gameplay more engaging. One exciting discovery was that attaching the camera to the car for a first-person perspective created a surprisingly fun experience. The team also tested controlling the car using a Vive tracker, which added a physical and interactive layer to the gameplay.

However, since our goal is to create a multiplayer cooperative experience for our client, we cannot change the project’s direction. Still, this test provided valuable inspiration, and we plan to explore how the tracker mechanic can be meaningfully integrated into our existing design.

On the technical and art side, the team continued developing visual feedback elements such as halo effects and explosion VFX, while also starting work on new textures and environment art. The design team refined UI layouts and storyboards, exploring how to visualize cheering interactions more clearly.

Next Steps

In the coming week, the team will focus on:

• Simplifying the game scope based on remaining time.
• Conducting another playtest at South Fayette Middle School to gather more player feedback.
• Enhancing the VFX feedback, especially for the cheering and audience effects.
• Polishing UI designs and continuing to build new art assets.
• Exploring how volume rendering can improve the look of the halo effect.