Presentation Day | 14/11/2016

The final step: presenting our project. After 6 or so weeks we presented our work for critical feedback by setting up a poster, a secondary monitor with a build of the game and, of course, the helmet itself, to be played with by our colleagues.

First-time walkthrough of the inputs on the helmet.

A second monitor was placed in front of the player so
that they stand up straight and can see the game better.

Feeling around for the correct inputs.

Final progress on the helmet develoment

                     

               First adding a layer of Acrylic-One           Then pouring acetone all over the styrofoam

                      to the styrofoam helmet                       to melt it away from the newly formed shell

Fixing the remainder of the shell

and finished the shape

Adding a foundation layer of paint

    

And finished it off with a touch of bronze!

Playtesting

The 7th of November we did our first official playtest of our game Under Pressure.
We got a lot of feedback and initial very good feedback. The feedback wasn't so much about the gameplay, more about  small UI confusions and control confusion.

The first UI feedback and the one that was stressed the most,was that it was hard to locate which button/knob/slider/switch to interact with when being shown on the in-game model of the helmet. The helmet was not mirrored in the game, so the player thought it was on the other side. This was resolved quite quickly and the test-players after the adjustment did not mention anything about it.

When the air pressure got too high the screen started cracking. This got problematic for the reason that the crack effect distorted the in-game model of the helmet, so it made it really hard for the player to see what to interact with. We took  this into hand and moved the model more to the center of the screen. We also got some cracking effect over the Air Pressure  UI, but the tester said it was alright. A tester mentioned that the knob silhouette was unclear. He did not really understand it what it was suppose to replicate. 

We got a lot of feedback on our controller, especially the potentiometers and sliders. We had set it to that you need achieve a not visible(for the player) value when sliding the slider or turning the potentiometer. This was really unclear for the player of course. We adjusted it so only had to interact with the slider or potentiometer to make it recognize in-game. A tester mentioned that the element of achieving a certain value with the sliders or potentiometers can be implemented in "Hard Mode".

The testers felt that it was hard to be precise with the potentiometer as well when adjusting the air pressure. The last feedback we got on the controller was that it was hard to find some of the knobs. We should have more spacing between the different controls, so the player can more easily differentiate the controls.

So positive feedback we got was that the sound was great. It made you feel really immersed in the game. The speaker attached to to the helmet creating the echoing inside made it feel that you actually was wearing an old diving helmet. The stress factor was increased when you were start losing air inside your suit and the player started chipping for air. It felt your were short on breath as well.     

Combining Helmet and Electronics

For the playtesting sessions next week we need to have two things:

• A function helmet with button placements.
• A working game in unity.

We'll be using the papier-maché helmet and attaching the components through mounting wire and duct tape. It's strong enough for the player to flip switches and turn potentiometers, but the exposed wires need to be masked off.

For the final product we'll be using a sculpting compound (clay, playdough, some other method) to permanently attach the components to the helmer and then we will hide the wires under a thin surface layer to allow the player to touch the helmet without risking accidentally breaking something.

Soldering time

Mistales - One Pager

Under Pressure - One Pager

Helmet shell prototypes

Paper mache version (Done):

 
 

Acrylic-One version: (under way)

The idea here is to make the general filler shape of the helmet with styrofoam & then apply a layer of acrylic-one.

Once the acrylic-one dried we'll remove the styrofoam with acetone!

(Super cool gif: melting styrofoam in acetone)

Electronics have arrived!

Look at those beauties. Potentiometers, momentary buttons, switches, linear potentiometers, wire, more switches. A lot more than the Arduino UNO can handle, but that allows us to mix and match depending on the needs. If we need more inputs than an UNO we'll have to get an Arduino Mega, with tons of I/O. We don't foresee that being necessary thought.

Monday I'll start on sodering the circuit, for which I've designed a circuit. It'll use every available output pin from the UNO and loads of wire.

Presentation Technical Prototypes.

On Monday  17th we presented the final technical prototypes of SoundWalk (Mistrails) and Under Pressure.

For Under pressure we set up and Arduino with several inputs, both digital and analogue, and had the player match inputs as a simon-says-like game. Also we had the sounds playing to create a diving-like atmosphere. Biggest problem here was that some of the potentiometers were faulty.

After that we went to the field to have Mistrails tested. Walking around and listening to sounds showed some problems with the limited accuracy of GPS, and problems with how unity handles sounds.

And so we decided to move forward with Under Pressure, mostly for the physical aspects and more simple gameplay. Mistrails would have had the better story and deeper engagement, a lot of potential. However Under pressure will propably be the more fun one to play, with it's party-game roots.

Designed a little logo for the team!

Fukn rad logo for the wildest parrots!

SoundWalk (2) | Under Pressure (4)

Under Pressure

Finalising the Under Pressure prototype is the connection from Arduino to PC to screen. For the screen we use an android phone (to be replaced by a tablet or screen for final product) and an app called WiredXDisplay.




The reason for this is that a laptop has higher graphical capability over android, and the connection is a lot more straightforward. The downside, compared to hooking an arduino up directly to the android device is that there will have to be cables hooked up to the helmet running to the laptop and back.

I'm not completely sold on either idea yet, other than that the laptop method works and the android method still needs more experimenting.

SoundWalk

As for SoundWalk, we're working on the scenario to be shown as the prototype. Possible title: T(R)AILS?

GPS is working, now to get it implemented or converted to a Unity project with the scenario.

SoundWalk | First day of prototyping.

October 10th, first day of SoundWalk.

The most important technical aspect about this project is the working GPS system, so that the player can walk around and listen for places to reach.

Also getting a unity project going to test the sounds, make sure that they are obvious. For the prototype we'll be using a scenario where people talk, and you ask for directions (or something similar). This would work by translating the GPS coordinates to an in-game object. Then we can get the distance between the player and in-game objects that hold sound and other data like menu options, dialogue choices and events.

Under Pressure | Road to prototype (3)

October 9th.

Some finalising the setup for the prototype, both hardware and software. The unity project is Jim's code reworked for a few more features (mostly visual feedback) and the arduino's button setup has been altered to get 3 potentiometer (one is kaput) and 5 buttons.

The final product will have all ports used and the input devices mounted on the helmet. Also a table would be mounted in front of the visor, but that still needs to be sorted out.

Under Pressure | Road to prototype (2)

Thursday, October 6th. Second day of working on the Diving Experience prototype, now renamed to 'Under Pressure'.

We mostly experimented with the Arduino in a simple Unity file, and experimenting with the connection.

Working at the FAB-Lab | Beginning on the prototype.

During this session we started work on the Diving Experience project with a few specifics in mind:

• The most important of this was getting Arduino inputs into Unity, key to making the helmet.
• Designing a system in Unity to get those analog and digital inputs read and designing an event system around that.
• Staring on the design aspects and discussing/designing things like the audio and gameplay aspects.
• Lastly was to get everything organised and set up a digital work environment. For this we used a combination of out LucaDrive and Trello (https://trello.com/b/KfSsRgDM/egt-diving-experience).

We're basically making a rough tech demo for this project, to prove that it's possible to achieve. Hopefully we'll have a working unity project and inputs by the end of the week. Next week we'll be working on the Soundwalk project.

Pitch: Do Not Cross

Pitch: Voices 

Pitch: Co-Op Runner