Connecting the Pieces
This week, we spent more time on puzzle ideas and how the two rooms could interact. We also started looking at how the puzzles, story, and tech fit together. Some of our early ideas brought up questions we still need to work through.
What We Worked On
Explored puzzle ideas and different ways the two rooms could communicate.
Talked about how to connect the puzzles with our story.
Worked on a three-minute elevator pitch for our quarters presentati
Trying Out Puzzle Ideas
We’re continuing with the same setup: one player on Tilt Five and several players in a separate room. This week, we explored pose sequences, color and animal puzzles, and a treasure-map puzzle where the Tilt Five player would use directional buttons to guide the room players.
One thing our instructor pointed out is that our story, puzzles, and tech still feel separate. The story works with the overall setup, but we haven’t figured out how the puzzles should look or how they belong in that world. That also makes it harder to explain the whole experience to someone else.
We also noticed a problem with the directional puzzle: one person in the room could do it on their own, leaving the others with nothing to do. We may need to rethink that kind of puzzle so everyone has a reason to take part.
Who Are We Designing For
We also talked about who we want to design for. Having kids at the festival doesn’t automatically mean we need to make every puzzle easier. We can choose the audience we want to focus on.
The same goes for group size. Trying to make every puzzle work for anywhere from one to four room players is putting a lot of limits on us this early. One option is to design for four players and use a sign-up sheet at the festival. We haven’t settled on that yet, but it gives us more room to explore.
Communication Between 2 Rooms
Tilt 5 to Room
The Tilt 5 person completes all their interactions with virtual objects in game on the Tilt 5
| Core Interaction | Tilt 5 sends: | Room gets feedback: | Tech Difficulty: |
| Trigger speakers in the room | “Dog Buttions”: basics | Simple words: Yes, No, Wait… | Low |
| “Dog Buttions”: directional | Left, Right, Front, Back… | Low | |
| Trigger lights in the room | Turn on specific lights | See specific lights and the things they point to | Medium |
| Communicate with PCs in the room | Create image with shapes, send image | See the image with shapes on a computer screen | Medium |
Room to Tilt 5
Mostly based on the camera view; can also include input (arduino/adaptive controllers)
| Core Interaction | Room sends: | Tilt 5 gets feedback: | Tech Difficulty: |
| Body Language/Physical Performance | Body Language to the camera | Static poses, charades, & their sequence information | Low |
| Show colors/objects to the camera | colors /objects & their sequence information | Low | |
| Button Input | Push/Hold specific buttons | Trigger effects in game | Medium |
Tech
For the tech side, our main focus is getting the Orbbec camera mounted stably on the ceiling. We also need to test the camera and make sure its captures are clear and usable for the TiltFive player. This will help us understand how well the room can be observed from the T5 side and what kinds of interactions we can build around the camera
Art
This week, we’re gathering references for our art mood board and brainstorming a few poster and logo ideas. We’re also exploring how the puzzles could look so they fit into the world of the mama bird, her babies, and the witch. Alongside that, we’re setting up the website and discussing its theme, colors, and overall style. We’re still trying out different ideas to see what feels right for our project.
