capital Games Newsletter #4 – 9/21/2012

This Week’s Highlights and Lowlights:

Albert got to visit with Sesame Workshop on his visit to New York for a conference, and had a unique opportunity to pick their minds and get some feedback on our work.

Back in Pittsburgh, the team was visited by Evan Hirsch. He loved the project and our approach, but felt we had missed one step: making sure that we could truly relate to our target demographic. We’ve been encouraged to and are interested in visiting lower-income communities.

Unfortunately, Anthony started the week with a bike accident, breaking a rib and fracturing a bone in his hand. Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend.

Design & Development:

This week has seen the implementation of many of our core scenes and art assets, as our programmers and artists have started to create a basic shell for our game. We’ve also realized that our design and passions are pushing us more towards a larger game (perhaps with many mini-games under a unifying umbrella) than a series of disconnected prototypes. Especially with the importance of presentation for our target
demographic, we felt that our iterations and testing throughout the semester should be toward a goal of a solid, polished deliverable.

A few issues have arisen that require further research and testing: we’re still ironing out the most effective character type for the player’s companion. We’re also searching for the most effective way to tell a story that empowers the player while complementing our content. For now, the core of our plot seems to be solid: the player finding the origin of everyday food items, but we’re looking for story details to motivate and resonate with the player.

On the Next Episode of Capital Games

We’re excited to host faculty on Monday for Quarters Walkarounds. In our informal conversations so far, our project has captured a good deal of excitement and enthusiasm, and this’ll be a great opportunity for us to turn that interest into insight as we have conversations on our research and work from the varied viewpoints of all of our ETC faculty, and can benefit from their feedback.