For our team this week started with a big\u00a0event: Halves. On Monday afternoon we presented\u00a0our project, our work to date, and our\u00a0plan for finishing on time with a great project\u00a0to program faculty and other students. As one\u00a0of only two public presentations of our work,\u00a0it\u2019s kind of a big deal.<\/p>\n
Since our project, an interactive story maker\u00a0for kids, is all about telling a heroic journey, we\u00a0structured our presentation as a story of our\u00a0journey to this point. We talked about how the\u00a0journey started, the heroes at the center of\u00a0the story (us), the mentors (our advisors and
\nthe faculty here at Carnegie Mellon), and our\u00a0allies (our clients, the San Antonio Children\u2019s
\nMuseum, the San Antonio Public Library, and\u00a0Argyle Designs). We talked about our call
\nto action, explaining how we went from our\u00a0clients\u2019 initial goals, through rounds of brainstorming,\u00a0to a concept we translated into a\u00a0paper protoptype. We talked about our first\u00a0great challenges in paper prototype playtests\u00a0and initial feedback from the faculty. To show\u00a0what we\u2019re doing, we demonstrated the latest\u00a0version of our story maker live. To explain how\u00a0we got there, we looked at the key element\u00a0of our production\u2014physical exhibition build,\u00a0art, animation, and programming\u2014and talked\u00a0about the challenges we faced and the solutions\u00a0we\u2019ve found along the way. Finally, we\u00a0discussed our plans for the challenges ahead\u00a0as we move closer and closer to our proposed\u00a0ship date of April 26.<\/p>\n
We had worked hard to get where we were.\u00a0The preceding week had been spring break,\u00a0but we had decided to stay in so we could get\u00a0more work done and polish our presentation. In\u00a0the end, we were glad we did. Faculty feedback\u00a0was largely positive: they understood what we\u00a0were doing and what the value of our work was.\u00a0Faculty offered some useful feedback, suggesting\u00a0ways we could polish (and shorten) our\u00a0presentation. They also offered a few helpful\u00a0thoughts about how best to fare the challenges\u00a0ahead.<\/p>\n
After Halves, we continued to work on finishing\u00a0the first full playable prototype of our exhibit. The\u00a0work we had presented earlier in the week was\u00a0about one-third of the total experience. While it\u00a0gave a good sense of what the experience was\u00a0supposed to be, we wanted to make sure we left\u00a0for California with a complete version of the experience\u00a0to show our client. This would let us add\u00a0as much content as time would allow over the\u00a0next weeks while making improvements based\u00a0on their feedback and the feedback we got from\u00a0playtests planned for April.<\/p>\n
Onwards to the next half!<\/p>\n
Most of our team heads to California for\u00a0the Game Developers Conference for the\u00a0next week, but we\u2019ll still be at work. We\u2019ll\u00a0be:<\/p>\n