{"id":172,"date":"2026-10-19T19:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/?p=172"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:39:53","slug":"week-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/week-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, we finalized our team photo:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"818\" src=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-173\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.2524850894632207;width:630px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image.png 1024w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-767x613.png 767w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During meeting we discussed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Party game ideas<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tech<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concept art<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1-sentence project description<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For design, we did physical playtests on three games: passing a ball, ghost hunting, and bomb defusal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even without tech, we hope to use a simple 2D camera, a screen, and paper to playtest some prototypes. These are the puzzle ideas we selected to do playtests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following the feedback from Quarters, we made the T5 player the main information sharer in these games. The basic format became: <strong>the T5 player tells the room players what to do, and the room players follow the instructions.<\/strong> However, this made the room players feel bored and aimless. They could only learn a limited amount of background information without being spoiled, so they mostly had to wait for instructions from the T5 player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a result, the current dynamic feels more like <strong>the T5 player is the \u201creal\u201d player with most of the information, while the room players function more like characters being controlled by the T5 player.<\/strong> This makes the experience less engaging for the room players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Problems We Observed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Instructions are understood too quickly.<\/strong> When communication is clear, room players can quickly understand what they are supposed to do and then become bored.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The games feel too similar.<\/strong> Although the games have different themes, the room players are mostly doing the same thing: moving to specific positions based on the T5 player&#8217;s instructions. They often do not understand <em>why<\/em> they are doing it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>There is little feedback.<\/strong> Room players do not receive enough feedback or information from their actions, so their actions do not feel meaningful.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>There is limited physical interaction.<\/strong> In the current prototypes, room players rarely interact with the physical environment in meaningful ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>New Direction<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of making the T5 player the main source of information, we want to give <strong>room players more information<\/strong> and create an information gap between the two sides. The goal is to use this information asymmetry to <strong>encourage communication<\/strong>, rather than relying on increasingly complex interactions to engage both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We want room players to have a clearer goal: <strong>finding information in the physical space, and sharing that information to make progress.<\/strong> We still believe puzzle-based games are a good fit for this direction because they naturally create opportunities for players to observe, communicate, interpret information, and make decisions together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, we do not plan to change the overall experience structure. We will still have <strong>three separate, parallel party games<\/strong>, but we may redesign two of them to focus more strongly on <strong>information-based puzzles and asymmetric information<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In terms of theming, we are still using birds and magical forests, because magic can explain a lot of mechanics naturally.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For tech, we are now working with the sync ups, trying to use multiple cameras for the body tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Finalized description for website and half-sheet:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Birdie\u2019s Chirp is a series of asymmetric co-op games where players in a room work with a Tilt5 player in a separate room, sharing information to solve challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The project explores cross-platform communication through different perspectives of the same space, a magical forest setting. The room players\u2019 movements are tracked through synced Orbbec 3D cameras and reflected in the Tilt5\u2019s virtual bird\u2019s-eye view, allowing the Tilt5 player to see and cooperate with the players from a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The magical forest setting and cute character emphasize the Warmth of Cooperation and Vivid Interactivity at the heart of the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, we finalized our team photo: During meeting we discussed: For design, we did physical playtests on three games: passing a ball, ghost hunting, and bomb defusal. Even without tech, we hope to use a simple 2D camera, a screen, and paper to playtest some prototypes. These are the puzzle ideas we selected to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/birdies-chirp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}