{"id":494,"date":"2026-04-01T14:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/?p=494"},"modified":"2026-04-12T20:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T20:53:14","slug":"week-9-building-toward-a-playable-prototype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/week-9-building-toward-a-playable-prototype\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 9 \u2013 Building Toward a Playable Prototype"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Week 9 was a pivotal development week as the team focused on pushing the project toward a fully playable prototype<\/strong>. While one team member was attending South by Southwest<\/strong> in Austin, the rest of the team remained on campus and concentrated on integrating systems and finalizing core functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress Toward a Playable Build<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A major milestone for the week was reaching a point where the game could be played end-to-end. Haru completed the majority of the playable prototype systems<\/strong>, bringing together key components of the game loop. At the same time, Mingrui worked on finalizing the narrative configurations<\/strong>, ensuring that questions, outcomes, and story elements were properly structured for implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the week, the team was working toward having a fully playable version of the prototype<\/strong>, marking an important transition from isolated systems to an integrated experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

System and Asset Integration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As development progressed, much of the team\u2019s effort shifted toward integration work<\/strong>\u2014bringing together assets, systems, and design elements into a cohesive build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Updating and implementing card images and UI elements<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Integrating new textures<\/strong> into the 3D environment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Refining visual consistency across assets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Junru also made visual adjustments to the environment, including changing the color of the oil lamp<\/strong> and planning additional details such as grips to improve the overall look and usability of the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Gameplay and Systems Refinement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Alongside integration, the team continued refining core gameplay systems. A particular focus was placed on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Balancing and configuring the King\u2019s Mood and Trust systems<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Iterating on the trade-offs and decision-making mechanics<\/strong> within the game loop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      These adjustments are critical to ensuring that player choices feel meaningful and that the system responds in a clear and engaging way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Audio and Feedback Systems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Boreas continued development on the game\u2019s sound effects<\/strong>, helping to reinforce player interactions and provide feedback during gameplay. These audio elements will play an important role in making the ritual feel responsive and immersive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Reuniting and Refining the Player Experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Once the full team was back together, we spent time mapping out the player experience<\/strong> from start to finish. This included identifying potential friction points, clarifying the flow of interactions, and ensuring that each step of the ritual is understandable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      As part of this process, the team also supported one another across disciplines\u2014helping to implement assets, refine systems, and troubleshoot integration challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      Early Tutorial Exploration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      In parallel with development, we began exploring ideas for how a tutorial and onboarding experience<\/strong> could be structured. Given the complexity of the system, it became increasingly clear that guiding the player through the ritual step-by-step would be essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This early exploration laid the groundwork for the more structured tutorial approaches developed in Week 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      By the end of Week 9, the team had made significant progress toward a cohesive, playable prototype. With core systems largely in place and integration underway, we entered the next phase focused on refinement, onboarding, and preparing the experience for user testing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Week 9 was a pivotal development week as the team focused on pushing the project toward a fully playable prototype. While one team member was attending South by Southwest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":744,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.etc.cmu.edu\/historacle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}