We had a successful playtest throughout this week and got lots of feedback and insights from the survey. Looking at the feedback given by our 45 playtesters, we received generally favorable reviews on the AR scene and our art style. Most of them were able to recognize the time period of the 2D scene, which is good news for us. The biggest piece of constructive feedback was about UI/UX and the onboarding process. Many people pointed out that there should be more ongoing instructions and more guidance for the interactive items.
With that being said, our next iterations will be polishing our UI and indirect control elements to help people to navigate the application without any frustration. We are focusing on adding clarity to tell the audience which item is clickable and providing a clear storyline to motivate the audience. We want players to be able to explore the scene and get the proper information in an interesting way more easily.
At the same time, our team started designing the 1911 episode and build the 1911 AR scene. We took inspiration from Wilson’s play, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone so we chose our main place as a boarding house for 1911. As a second interactive place, we chose a steel mill considering the historical background of Pittsburgh.
Our team also has made a lot of progress on the 2D character animation and art this week to finalize the 1969 episode as soon as possible. We want it to convey the more authentic and livelier vibe of Hill District.
Next week, we will have a new onboarding story, the final 1969-episode, sound, a new 1911 AR scene, and a rough sketch for the 2D scenes.