For week six, we have revised the critical conversation topics and also done the basic game design. Through the previous meeting with client and also some barriers we decide that the experience will be developed on mobile web browser (WebGL or html5).
The idea is to getting players exchange information and solve puzzles together so they will have the opportunity to have discussion based on the conversation topics.
In the current design, players will be asked to solve a critical problem in the science center as a museum manager. The attendees in ASTC 2022 conference will get a badge after registration. There are badges with 4 different colors representing different context and types of information they have. To start the experience they can click the link in ASTC official app or scan the QR code on the posters located in exhibit hall.
According to the badge color, the attendees will have one unique hint for the puzzle and they are encouraged to communicate with others to gather more hints. This step will overcome the Unfamiliarity (Lack of deep conversations with strangers) and Access (Finding the right conversation partner in a large conference this two barriers we mentioned in Week 5’s post).
Also, there will be posters in exhibit hall representing the prompt spot. The prompt spots will play the role of advertising and attracting more attendees to participate and also giving them opportunities to connect with the others in the prompt spots. This was designed for barriers like Relevance (Don’t know what kind of topics they should talk about) and Fear (Personality traits like shyness. Worry about upsetting conversation partner).
After they collected enough information they can solve the puzzle by place the items on the screen representing museum layout. For example, in this puzzle, the players need to figure out how to attract young adults into science museum. The players then need to find out the approperiate exhibits and think about the better layout of museum. When they collect the right informations from the others and finish the puzzle they can get some points based on the results. At last the results can be used to exchange some physical or digital rewards.
Overall, this is our current design and we are still working of the prototype. Next week, we are going to have 1/2 presentation and we are planning to showing this idea and paper prototype to the ETC members and client. Based on the feedback we will then decide the next step of prototyping.
Comments are closed