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Week 13 & 14 – Ghost of Joseph Priestley
“A ghost is about to get a permanent address.” These final two weeks were about one thing: making sure that when we hand this installation to the Priestley-Forsyth Memorial Library, it actually works. Not “works in our lab with five people watching.” Works when we’re not there. Works when a 12-year-old mashes every button at
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Week 12 – The Final Sprint Before Soft Opening, and Carnival!
“Polish everything. Break nothing.” With the soft opening just around the corner, this week was pure execution. Three levels of gameplay, a full physical installation, and a free-talk AI mode all need to work together seamlessly. No more “we’ll fix it later.” Later is now. All Three Levels, All the Way Through The biggest milestone
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Week 11 – Playtest Day!
On Week 11, we are able to host a huge playtest event, hosting roughly 27 playtesters, and have them experience our story. For more information, check the progress update slides we prepared in the link! Link to media and material files from the Week:
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Week 10 – It Will Light Up the Whole Town
This was the week we sat down with our clients Jeff and Harry to walk them through everything: the Halves presentation, a live demo of the current build, playtest results, and our plans for the second half of the semester. They were thrilled. Not politely-nodding thrilled. Genuinely, visibly excited. Jeff said the installation would “light
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Week 9 – Two Cities, One Ghost
Week 9 was a split-screen week. Three of us headed to GDC in San Francisco. Meanwhile, back at CMU, Agnes and Na held down the fort, grinding through Level 1 polish and setting up what would become our most important playtest yet. At GDC, the big takeaways were deceptively simple: align your goals constantly, keep
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Week 8 – Proving It Works
“The vision is good enough. Now make the installation happen.” This was Halves week, the mid-semester milestone where we stand in front of faculty and present everything: where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. If Quarters was about proving we understood the problem, Halves was about proving we could solve it. And
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Week 7 – Teaching a Ghost to Show, Not Tell
“It’s not about saying more. It’s about saying it better.” This week we dove into the dialogue scripts with fresh eyes, refining the Yes-or-No Mystery mechanics and reviewing the full experience flow with our instructors Mike and Scott. The result? A Priestley who feels more alive, more present, and more fun to talk to, all
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Week 6 – The Full Picture Clicks
“What if the experiment is just the appetizer?” This was the week everything came together. Not in a “we finished the game” kind of way, but more like the moment when you’ve been staring at scattered puzzle pieces for weeks and suddenly you see how they all connect. We now have a complete experience design
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Week 5 – Demo is out!
After four weeks of research, brainstorming, field trips, and presentations, it was time to get our hands dirty and actually build something. The Quarter feedback was clear: we had a solid concept, but concepts don’t make teenagers go “wow.” Playable demos do. So we started with the hardest question first: what is the core mechanic
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Week 4: Showing Our Cards
“Here is our target, here is how we’ll hit it — what are we missing?” Week 4 was Quarter week, and the energy on the team was a mix of excitement and that specific brand of nervous energy that comes from presenting unfinished work to smart people who will absolutely ask you the hard questions.