Week 13 – Incorporating Softs Feedback

Playtesting

Over the weekend we held a playtest with a family that had three young children between the ages of 2 and 8. They really enjoyed the game and the two older siblings enjoyed competing with each other. We found that we still needed some tweaks to help with the flow and timing of the experience. The scene change transitions happened too fast, which led the kids to be a bit overwhelmed at first. Once they understood what was happening, they had a lot of fun! They especially enjoyed Bil’s game and wanted to be able to mix more colors in Mage’s game.

Iterations From Softs

Our biggest piece of recurring feedback has been that players accidentally select items without meaning to. The screen that we currently have as the idle screen has too many interaction points and it is too easy to accidentally select an item. To resolve this, we added a new idle screen which requires two points of interaction for the game to start. Having guests place their hands on two nodes within a short time frame reduces the risk of guests accidentally triggering the game. 

We also updated Mage’s game to include a free mixing mode that is unlocked after playing three levels. This way players have more creative freedom in customizing their rocket. 

Physical Rocket – Final Version

With the majority of the software side complete, we shifted to focus more on completing the physical rocket. We previously worked with Zach at Ideate to figure out how best to mechanically attach the window pieces with the LEDs, and completed a test print. It worked perfectly! With that in place, we are now ready to print the final version of our rocket. 

We also worked with Dave Purta to determine the final components needed for the electrical side, and placed orders for a junction box, power supply and stackable terminals for the Arduino.