4/17–4/21
Faculty Softs
Faculty soft opening went well. The experience went well for Dave and Brenda, but there were some technical issues at the end so Shirley was unable to complete the experience due to a malfunction with some of the buttons. Sher found and resolved the issue, and Shirley visited the GLCR the next day in order to get a complete experience.
Some of the feedback we got was that the button interactions felt laggy, specifically when the sound effect played compared to when the guest would press the button, the voice was too fast, and advice on the wording for the questions. Brenda gave us excellent feedback on visuals of the experience, bringing up the question of “why?” Why was the guest in this archive? Why are they standing in the back of the room, in the doorway? With these questions in mind, we will continue to refine our product.
Art
We are still experimenting with visuals. We are considering having a setting for the beginning and end of the experience and when the guests answer the questions. Especially with Brenda’s feedback, we are moving towards having the experience be more surreal overall. We feel that we may be in between having it be more realistic or surreal, so we need to lean into one fully to make the experience feel less confusing.
Insert pictures here
Tech
During Faculty Softs, we had a minor issue with the phone. One of the wires inside was old, causing half the buttons to stop working. Once the wire was replaced, the phone worked as intended. We will add this error into the documentation to be handed off to Stephan so that he can fix this problem if it ever arises again.
UI
On Friday, our artist Rei created a new piece of art and we rendered it during the weekend. It’s a more dreamy and solited scene and not a library or archive. Then Cora starts working on the new UI based on this new art and here are some concept sketches:
Script
With the feedback from Faculty Softs, we made some minor changes to the script, including slight language changes. We are considering changing out two of the questions to something a little more pointed, as opposed to having the slight ramp-up in difficulty, going all out on the intensity from the get-go.
Sound
We have our alumni Ari Winters come by and he gives us fantastic feedback on music, like creating more of the subtle noises in the environment popping out and setting up a room tone. We were also informed there was a slight lag time between when the button on the phone is phrased versus when the sound effect plays, so we will be adjusting the sound effect to make it shorter.
Furniture
Our furniture arrived Monday, and we set it up on Tuesday. Pictures of the current layout are below:
Insert pictures of room here
Client Feedback
Our client is happy with the progress of our project currently. He was excited to see it on Tuesday and talked about the experience and our progress with Tom and Shirley. He brought us the furniture and feels that it’s a good fit for the room and for the experience as a whole.
Advisor Feedback
The only major advice from this week’s meeting was to work on the pacing of the voice lines, as well as finalizing the visuals. Ralph was very excited about the project so far, saying that he loved the experience and how it turned out.
Alumni Softs
We got lots of helpful feedback from Alumni softs. The playtesters all liked the physicality of the phone. They felt really comfortable in the space, especially since they were alone to respond to the questions with their own time. The skip option made them feel safe in the case that they didn’t want to respond to a question. Someone suggested a button that would allow the guest to hear the dialogue again. They also had several suggestions for the background noise, such as wishing the ambient music was a little louder.
Conclusion
We’ve learned a lot from soft openings, and we feel that our project is coming along very well. We’ll be finalizing our experience in the next week and preparing our presentation for finals.