“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 once. Works when the librarian needs to restart it on a Tuesday morning and nobody from our team is picking up the phone.
The Installation Manual
The biggest deliverable of these two weeks wasn’t code. It was a document.
We wrote a comprehensive installation manual for the library staff. It covers everything: how to launch the game (double-click one shortcut, test the mic, press a button), how to troubleshoot when things go wrong (the “Three-Step Rule”: wait, soft-restart with Alt+R, hard-restart with Alt+F4), how to print the Lunar Society certificates, how to replace every single physical prop, and how to make Priestley smarter over time by adding Q&A pairs to a simple spreadsheet.
That last part is worth highlighting. We built a tool that lets the library staff open a CSV file, add new question-and-answer pairs about Priestley’s life, save it, and the AI immediately becomes more knowledgeable. No programming required. Harry can add a fact about Priestley’s friendship with Benjamin Rush on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon a visitor can ask about it and get a real answer. The guidelines are simple: write in first person (“I was born…” not “He was born…”), keep answers to 1 to 3 sentences, always include both a question and an answer.
We also documented every piece of hardware (Xbox Adaptive Controller, FIFINE K690 microphone, Beetronics touchscreen), every cable connection, every fallback input method, and every common failure scenario we could think of. If the bladder breaks? Press S on the keyboard. Microphone dies? Hold Left Ctrl instead. Touchscreen unresponsive? Here’s a step-by-step calibration guide. The goal was simple: no single point of failure should kill the experience.
The Painting Frames
The physical painting frames went from prototype to finished product. We laser-cut acrylic boards, mounted screens behind decorative frames, and installed them so the paintings transform from faded to vivid as players progress through each level. When a frame “restores,” it plays a video that transitions from distorted to clear, and the effect in person is genuinely striking. We also kept the digital-only version as a backup, so the experience still works even if the physical frames get damaged.
100+ Bugs, One Goal
We fixed over a hundred bugs in these two weeks. Some were small (a sound effect playing at the wrong moment, a UI element slightly off-center). Some were not (the soft-restart mode occasionally skipping Level 2 entirely and jumping back to the tutorial). Each fix was tested, retested, and tested again.
The most meaningful changes came from our final round of playtest feedback. We discovered that the experience, originally designed with groups in mind, needed to work just as well for a solo player. A teenager visiting the library alone shouldn’t feel like they’re missing out because nobody is debating yes-or-no questions with them. We reworked the UX guidance to make every instruction clear for a single player: visual prompts on screen, Priestley’s voice confirming actions, and pacing adjustments so solo players never feel rushed or lost.
The Handoff
By the end of Week 14, the installation was packed and ready to ship. A PC with an RTX 4090 running everything locally. A touchscreen diary. A microphone disguised as a quill pen. A bladder prop. An envelope puzzle with hand-made wax seals. Three painting frames. Mary’s portrait. A stack of Lunar Society certificates. A maintenance manual. And a ghost who has a lot to say.
We started this semester not knowing who Joseph Priestley was. We’re ending it having built a 20-minute experience where a teenager can sit down, meet his ghost, recreate his most famous experiment, live through the night his house burned down, learn about the wife he lost, and walk away holding a certificate that says they’re an honorary member of the Lunar Society.
The ghost of Joseph Priestley is moving into his new home. And for the first time in over 200 years, he’s going to have visitors.
Media and Links:
- Installation Manual
- Trailer Video
- Final Gameplay Walkthrough