Summary of the Week
This week we nailed down our topic, established our subject matter expert, brainstormed gameplay and prepared for Quarters presentation. It was a very busy week, but extremely productive.
Choosing our topic
After multiple brainstorming sessions and pro/con lists we finally chose dark skies as our topic! For our experience we will look to address the harmful effects light pollution has on bird migration.
When we first narrowed down our topic to dark skies we thought of all the ways that we could address light pollution and we were really torn between sea turtles and birds. After thinking about who our audience would be at the festival we decided to go with birds. Since we want guests to feel motivated to take action after the experience, we felt like there would be too much of a disconnect for most people between sea turtles and their daily lives, whereas birds are everywhere around the world. With our topic chosen, it was now time to find our subject matter expert who could help guide us and answer our questions.
Our subject matter expert
We reached out to Diane Turnshek, who is a professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University to ask if she would help advise our team on light pollution and dark skies and she has agreed to assist us. Diane has been awarded the Dark Skies Defender Award from the International Dark Skies Association, has worked with the UN and also worked to help pass the dark sky ordinances in the city of Pittsburgh. We have set up a time to meet with her next week and we are looking forward to having her guidance on our project.
Brainstorming gameplay ideas
In preparation for Quarters, we have put together a simple gameplay mockup. Since we feel really solid in our topic we wanted to focus our attention on getting feedback from the faculty on our gameplay ideas. Currently we are thinking of having a one person VR game where the guest will play as a bird and experience what it is like to encounter light pollution as you try to migrate. The second option would be to introduce a second player who would help assist the bird by turning off lights or changing our fixtures to help make it easier for them to navigate. So essentially, guest one would be focused on building empathy and guest two would be focused on how to take action.
Finalizing the art assets
The artists have been working hard and have completed the logo, poster and ½ sheet. The only thing holding us back right now is the description of our project for our ½ sheet. Since we are still finalizing the details of our project’s direction, we want to make sure we feel confident in what we send to Shirley for our final description.
Quarters presentation and feedback
Our presentation went well and we received a lot of valuable feedback. Here are some of the feedback or questions that we received that stood out to us:
- How are we going to disorient the guest but not make them sick
- If this is such a big problem then why don’t we see dead birds everywhere?
- How will the guest find their way back after they become lost?
- This might be tough on guest’s eyes
- Think about the power each character has in the game
Overall our team felt good about the feedback and the questions really helped us to reevaluate some of our game mechanics and think about what questions we need to research more.
What went well
Our team is really excited about our topic and we feel good about the feedback we received from our Quarters presentation.
Next Steps
Now that we have our topic narrowed down it is time for us to focus on filling out the Transformational Framework. Our meeting with Diane next week will hopefully help answer a lot of our questions from the feedback we received and help us in our development.
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