After Spring Break, Week Eight of the Spring 2022 project semester began. For this week, we focused on adjusting our design and content in accordance with the feedback we had received from Halves and from our client meeting with the ASTC.
Authentic Conversation Topics
Prior to Week Eight, we had centered our game around the topic of attracting young adults (20-30 year olds) to science centers and museums. However, in our last client meeting, the ASTC mentioned that they would prefer for us to focus on other topics that are more relevant to their current discussions.
The other topics that we had identified as potential authentic conversation topics are:
- New and Emerging Technologies
- Keeping Up with the Current Pace of Change
- Informal Education in the Digital Age
- Relationships with Their Communities
In particular, the ASTC expressed interest in the first three conversation topics as these topics represent a more future-forward approach. Thus, we did some additional research on these three topics such as identifying pros and cons of different technologies or potential solutions for keeping up with the pace of change.
In the end, we choose to focus on New and Emerging Technologies. Firstly, this topic is of interest to us as Carnegie Mellon University students. Secondly, New and Emerging Technologies relates to several of our other conversation topics. Technology is a potential solution to keeping up with the current pace of change. It also plays a key role in informal education in the digital age.
During our Week Eight client meeting, the ASTC approved of this change in direction. They also offered us a few of their thoughts regarding New and Emerging Technologies. Technology can be a good way to highlight groups within the community. It can also offer new opportunities for innovation. On the downside, technology comes with issues of privacy and challenges surrounding how it can be integrated into pre-existing systems.
Game Design Changes
Additionally, we also pivoted our game’s design direction. Our earlier design was more based around puzzle mechanics. This was a cause of concern for the ASTC as they prefered a more open-ended, conversation-based design. Additionally, the ASTC wondered if the game lacked the ability to reflect real world nuance surrounding the various conversation topics.
As such, we decided to focus on coming up with designs that would better serve the ASTC’s priorities. We generated two new potential game designs to present at our Week Eight client meeting. These game designs were:
- Investment Game – This game is centered around a discussion and a voting mechanic. Guests can assemble into groups with a flexible number of other players. Together, they choose a Scenario that is based off of a real issue or event. Individual player then picks a Technology from a list that they believe would be the best for handling the Scenario. Players engage in discussion with one another before voting for which Technology (not including their own) they believe is the best fit for the Scenario.
- Guessing Game – This game is centered around guessing words. Guests assemble into groups with several other players. One player is designated the Host while the other players are Guessers. All players see a Prompt, consisting of a topic and a fill-in-the-blank sentence. The Host picks words to fill-in-the-blanks. Then the Guessers must ask the Host questions in order to attempt to guess the Host’s words.
After the Week Eight client meeting, we decided that we will proceed forward with the Investment Game (Idea One) concept. We believe that this idea allows for more discussion on our critical conversation topics in comparison to the Guessing Game (Idea Two) concept.
Future Steps
By the beginning of Week Nine, we will iron out the details of the Investment Game (Idea One) and create a playable prototype. We will generate more content for the game based off of our research into the New and Emerging Technologies topic. We will study the technological implementation of our idea as well as generating concept art for our new idea.
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