Hello everyone! We are team Chillax, a team of 6 graduate students at the Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University.
Our project is a client-based project which intends to build a virtual chill space for high-school students that they can access after class. There are physical Chill Rooms in middle schools and high schools for students to have themselves relaxed. However, when they are outside their school, a chill space should still be available for them to fill the gap.
Our team:
Jiani Feng – Producer/ Game Designer
Yumeng Wei – Programmer
Haoran Liang – Programmer
Yuxuan Wu – 2D Artist
Jia Xing – UI/UX Designer/ 2D Artist
Yuxin Gu – Game Designer/ Co – Producer
Work Preparation:
We introduced ourselves and decided our roles in the team.
We decided on the team’s name “Chillax”.
Before we met the clients, we prepared the questions we have about the project. During the in- person meeting with the client, we talked about the expectations about the projects, and our questions were solved during the discussion. We scheduled our weekly meeting time with clients and instructor as well as an in-person visit to the Chill Room at Pleasant Hills Middle School.
We had a deep conversation with the director of the Chill Room and had a close look at the facilities in the Chill Room on the day of the visit.
Game Research & Game Design:
For this week, we started brainstorming about the experience and the art style of Chillax and doing research.
- Game References: Animal Crossing, Pocket Love, Lovelink
- Art References: Studio Ghibli, Pocket Love, Animal Crossing, Cuphead
- Gameplay:
- Build your own safe space: Decorating your room with new furniture by collecting the coins.
- Diary: Record your emotions and daily life.
- Daily Task: Choose one task from a series of tasks to complete for rewards.
- Art:
- Seek for references that could bring the guest a sense of relaxation.
- Programming:
- Do surveys on platform preferences like iOS, Android, etc. The target audiences are high school students.
- Sound:
- Decide on using open-source sound.
Challenge:
- Develop experience that can balance chill experience and implement the curriculums related to the Chill Room.
- Decide on the platform to develop the app.
Plan for next week:
- Continue working on the gameplay ideas and decide game flow and experience.
- Playtest Workshop: Get feedback from classmates and instructors with a built Composition Box.
- Make weekly updates and give a pitch deck presentation to the clients and instructor.
- Decide the platforms for the project.
- Whitebox for the experience.