On Monday, we revisited our feedback and observations from Playtest Day. The session was incredibly valuable – it showed us where players were engaged, and where they needed more guidance. Some main takeaways were to refine our puzzle flows so that everyone can feel involved, allow the players to have easy wins at the start, and making onboarding more immersive.

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to visit Bricolage’s Imaginarium escape room, where we met with Jason (Engineer), Jeff (Owner), and Rod. The visit was eye-opening, offering a deeper look at how professional escape rooms use lighting, sound, and pacing to build immersion.

A few takeaways stood out: dimming lights and ambient sound can elevate the mood; in-world facilitators make a huge difference in the player’s experience; children unsurprisingly are the most enthusiastic participants. We also learned about tools like QueLab (for theater management) and MadMapper (for projection mapping), as well as small but effective design choices like repeatable audio clues and UV-triggered interactions. The visit definitely helped us think about how to refine our onboarding and worldbuilding.

Friday, we had our instructor meeting and second process grade review, wrapping up the week with updates across art, tech, and narrative.

• Art: Developed the Tilt Five UI, and continued modeling for the gallery and map environments.
• Tech: Implemented UV light effects using shaders and integrated a magnifying glass mechanic through Tilt Five’s camera system.
• Narrative: Finalized all dialogue clues, made revisions to the onboarding script based on playtest feedback, and completed the first version of the offboarding script.

It was a productive week overall!