Introduction
Moonlanders was a team of six ETC students collaborating with the Moonshot Museum to create three design prototypes for new interactive exhibits. The Moonshot Museum is a new Pittsburgh space museum dedicated to career and community readiness for the space industry of today and tomorrow. In partnership with Astrobotic, the Moonshot Museum offers visitors an unprecedented opportunity to get up close and behind the scenes of the 21st century space industry.
We designed experiences that enable guests to learn more about the exciting possibilities of space travel and exploration. Our goal was to explore and document potential exhibit designs for the Moonshot Museum to develop and build in the future. These prototypes were intended to enhance the theater, clean room, and art zone or family room experience with a focus on highly interactive learning exhibits.
In the end, we created prototypes known as Payload Packing (Finding Space), AR Moon Colony, and Mission Control.
The team consisted of:
- Angelina Shi – Producer
- Anthony (Anton) Renouf – Assistant Producer & Designer
- Tairan (Evans) Gao – Programmer
- Tsai-Yen (Cleo) Ko – Programmer
- Derek Williams – Designer & 2D Artist
- Caiyu (ZhouZhou) Zhang – 3D Artist
We have written our post-mortem in the document below, covering what went well and what could’ve been better.
What Went Well?
- Team Dynamics
We felt that team dynamics were great for this project. Team members were willing to learn new skills and help each other with responsibilities that didn’t fall under their own job title. This was particularly useful in a project like Moonlanders where we weren’t sure what our needs for each prototype would be, requiring a great deal of flexibility from each team member.
- Client Relationship
Our relationship with the client, Mike Hennessy from the Moonshot Museum, was consistently amicable. We made sure to maintain regular communication and updates on progress. He was also pleased with the final outcome of the prototypes and documentation.
- Prototype Variety
We were able to try different styles for each prototype since they were completely independent. It allowed all the team members to try things that they are interested in. We had prototypes that were more focused on novel technologies like the AR Moon Colony and prototypes that were more focused on game-like elements like the mini-games in Mission Control.
- Time Management
The time management of the team was good and all the meetings were efficient and concise. We were generally able to meet our deadlines and progress our project throughout this semester. The overall pace of the project was good and well planned.
What Could’ve Been Better?
- Early Playtesting
Playtesting should have been conducted sooner, and more often. We would occasionally get bogged down in implementation and lose our grip on the fast paced iteration we should have been aiming for. While we did playtest more later in the semester, the lack of early playtesting did hinder our progress.
- Faculty Advice
We should’ve asked faculty for advice on how to best proceed with different processes earlier and more often. For example, it could have potentially been easier to iterate and test if we had taken a BVW (Building Virtual Worlds) approach to the 3 prototypes at the start, then developed what worked from there throughout the semester.
- Early Planning
Something that we should’ve done was more early planning. Early planning for system design, including the creation of UML diagrams and documenting class interfaces, is crucial for the project’s success. This approach helped us establish a clear, structured foundation for our game prototypes, which made it easier to understand the relationships between different components, identify potential issues, and communicate our design intentions to the rest of the team. Furthermore, having a well-documented system design ensured that we could easily make adjustments as new requirements emerged or as we received feedback on our prototypes. This not only streamlined the development process but also contributed to the overall quality and maintainability of our software, ultimately enhancing the user experience of our games.
- Art Pipeline
The 3D art pipeline could have been better. We could have found a smoother process of handing in 3D assets from the artist to the programmers.The 3D art assets should be put in a well organized file structure so they can be easily modified if needed.
Lessons Learned & Conclusion
In conclusion, we learned a lot over the course of this project, covering a wide variety of topics and areas. We had a significant amount of successes, but also areas where we acknowledge that we can improve on in the future.
We learned that early planning and following an iterative design process are essential for a successful project. This approach allows for ongoing feedback and adjustments, helping to minimize wasted time and resources while maximizing the quality of the final product.
Another important lesson learned was on the importance of always making sure the guest’s role in the experience is clear as this can improve engagement.
Finally, while our team had many creative ideas for the game prototypes, not all of them were feasible given our time and resource constraints. We learned the importance of carefully evaluating the feasibility of our ideas before investing time and effort in their development. Making sure reality is clearly defined through the use of project management techniques to understand how to use the time remaining as productively as possible.
Overall, our team was pleased with the work that we had done over the semester. Our team worked well together and we all learned something new through this project. Thank you for reading this post-mortem!