Week11

Apr 3 – 9

Summary:

Being only 2 weeks ahead of the Soft Opening, we spent week 11 to polish things and solve the problems we found from the April 1st playtest results. Having only 4 weeks of time until the Final, it was really important to make decisions upon the priorities and scope. While we were developing the PT. 3 outside world, we were still a bit puzzled on the design of ending scene

For this week, we had a special visitor from the Dolby and CMU alumni/library departments.

Production:

From the Weekly Advisor Meeting, John pointed us that:

  • PT2. Footstep guides at the middle is not really guiding the guests.
    (Better to either delete it or make it connected with more footstep guides)
  • PT2. Instruction, visual guide on scanning / collecting needs to be more intuitive
  • PT3. Maybe we can remind the guest to scan the environment by automatically showing them the scanning view at first
  • PT3: The moment letting the guest take a breath as listen to the ‘gravity..’ and take a look around is good
  • PT3: Bending down to pick up / collect the sample – difficult, The location of samples should be higher to make collecting easier
  • When we ask for feedback / discussing the ending with faculties/clients, make sure to explain the intention / purpose for the decision so they would not miss the essence

Also, we reached out to our Faculty Consultant Ruth and got some insightful feedback.

  • Must build/develop EXT. environment visually compelling as well as INT. spaceship
    Adding sth for the spectator view would also be a huge plus
    (progress bar, some ui features, Rendered texture, Mission…)
  • In overall color usage of EXT. world is too red. Give more contrast between the elements -Ex. samples to be obsidian black, dark rock
    Suggesting color combination: pink, yellow, orange, brown, grey
  • Main interactive object of task: crystal sample, Make it cooler!
  • Liked Jelly fish – hope they had more sounds, interaction, feedback
  • After each collection, hope there was more feedback. EX. change of the environment
    (This has been discussed within the team as well but still we were puzzled of the way to design the interaction with the right scope & the intuitive connection to the world)
  • Needs spectacles in the end that make sense, but showmanship coolness more important
  • Being outside exp: feels like a cheat… needs to be better to match like inside spaceship
  • Highest priority seems to be the Ending & Spectacles

Itertations:

After team meeting the User stories / Task lists for the next sprint upon priorities were:

  • Guest can reactivate the boots without centering again
    • New SDK needs to be implemented, Phoebe needs some time
  • Guests can use scanning functions in a more intuitive way
    • solution 1) Try new method of scanning : change the whole view with different mesh
    • solution 2) Modify the current method : Scanning screen size / UI / angle
  • More intuitive, clear Scan / Collecting Tutorial, guests can apply it when they enters PT.3 :
    (But needs to be waited until we see if the new method of scanning works)
    • solution 1) develop the current version at PT.2 EX. actual sample pop up
    • solution 2) Or move it to PT.3 and teach the guests directly at the outside world
  • Guest needs to walk less, feels less tired or uncomfortable to complete the world
    • Make the scale of outside worlds smaller
    • Modify layout, Longer distance task would be deleted
    • The location of the sample would be higher so the guest doesn’t have to bend down
  • Guests experience more interaction / feedback from the environment after each collection
    • Change on the Light – Starts darker and gets bright
    • Trees grow & bloom at the terrain
    • Narrative doesn’t have to be explicit but turns out that the crystals were giving a bad influence on the planet.
  • Design of the rewarding ending
    • News: Solved energy crisis? Changes in the environment?

Demo:

Apr 5th Demo 1 | Apr 5th Demo 2 (Continued)