Week ten was a whirlwind of a week for the team, and we don’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Development of the physical and the tangible happened in parallel, as the team really found their flow.
On-Screen
The team was able to fully assemble the on-screen experience for the first time this week, and we are seeing everything begin to come together.
Candice completed the models and textures for the first story, as well as the environment that would be surrounding it. These models were placed into the unity scene to be given simple animations, and she moved on to begin the models and textures of the second story.
Jimmy created a shader that is able to turn objects from black and white to color.
By playtest day, guests will be able to place the physical pieces onto the board and see the corresponding piece come up on the screen. In addition, set progression is implemented. As currently planned, having 1 piece in a set has it in black and white, having 2 pieces from the same set on the board turns those pieces to color, having 3 pieces from the same set on the board starts to animate those pieces, and finally having 4 pieces from the same set on the board begins the story of the set, connecting park history with personal history.
Hardware Integration
Wednesday was a big day for Yifan, as our Phidgets arrived in the mail. She was able to begin to get them hooked up to the Unity project and working! Unfortunately, as many things do, they stopped working on Friday night (just before playtest day!). The team made the decision to fake that the system is working in order to best get the point across and talk to IT first thing next week.
Fabrication
Jack and Devika laser cut the board, and Jack, Jimmy, and Yifan assembled it, putting together lights, rfid readers, and the board itself to create the start of our physical experience.
Cayla was able to get some of the physical pieces 3D printed with her own printer, which turned out nearly the way the team wanted them to be. We will be continuing to iterate on the physical pieces and rapidly experimenting with different ways to make them.
All was not smooth sailing, however, as Devika and Cayla made an attempt at resin printing. While the process is shorter than a traditional 3D print, it is new to everyone on the team and did not go as planned, as the supports printed but the actual model did not.
Playtest Day
At the end of the week, the team gathered on a Saturday to welcome people into our world via playtesting. We were able to get a lot of good feedback that will be synthesized and further delved into next week.