TL; DR
- 37 people played A(i)dol in a K-pop class on Sep 29.
- The thing that surprised us: the fake social feed was the favorite part.
- So we’re rebuilding the game around it. V2 and V3 have been rewritten
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37 people, 9 provided tablets and phones, A/B test
Playtest 1 happened on Sep 29, in Dr. Berbiguier‘s K-pop class.
Four things we learned
Each of these showed up in more than one independent place: survey, observation sheet, and what people said out loud.
- Ownership happens at the reveal.
So, we add an interaction of wiping the mirror when players reveal their look.
- People want to take it away with them.
So, we designed an email system that automatically give the original image and video to the player.
- People want consequences: positive and negative.
- World is the wow moment.
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So, the feed became part of the game
We enriched the experience in this in-game feed so players can go watch videos in World while they are waiting for AI generation time.
We also made World the destination with players’ creation land.
So, the game loop is now:
Idol training life → Create stage performance → publish to World → Track fans grow
Throughout the process, World will always be accessible to the players. Here are what we plan to ship in World.
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Cost Breakdown
| Tool | Used for | Type | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Images | Look assets, skin tones + hair, custom-item pipeline tests | API | $9.37 |
| Pollo.ai: $399 | Stage video tests | Subscription | $399 |
| OpenRouter | Image and video generation | API | $74.24 |
| Suno: $30/month *1, $10/month *1 | Music prompt template tests | Subscription | – |
| ElevenLabs: $6/month *2 | Backend probes: lip sync, gacha, joint test; SFX | Subscription | $11.66 |
| Claude: $125/month * 6 | Docs, architecture, coding | Subscription | $750 |
| Total | $1244.27 |
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Weekly Progress Report