Author: kme

This week was a mad dash to complete all of our concept work so that we can move into production next week.

The first few days were spent finalizing the mechanics of our current iteration. We eventually locked on a game where four players work together to recycle waste and create new items for the city, building up into edicts to reduce the amount of waste the city produces. We landed on our mechanics after using Sabrina Culyba’s Transformational Game Framework.

We playtested this concept on Wednesday with the Steenrod Green Team, and they had an absolute blast! It was great to see the children running around shouting to try and sort their waste, but there was one big problem: we’re only human. Because our game uses a few interlocking systems, without a computer to automatically distribute waste, convert waste, deal with pollution and edicts, and manage verifying proper recycling, we had to do all of that, and even with three of our team managing the gameplay, it was too much for us to manage. This means that we need to develop our digital prototype ASAP so that we can see if the fun remains the same and so that we can balance the mechanics better. This is definitely a frightening thing, but hopefully, our talents will enable us to quickly get this game developed.

Since we saw such a positive response with this game we decided that it would be our final concept. Now we just needed to iron out the details and start building. We debated whether trading between players should be special roles (flingers) that get waste from their respective bases (one of four players playing a recycling center) or if everything should be managed by the bases. We debated if trading should be done with QR code scanning, NFC communication, or a network-facilitated drag-drop interface. Since NFC is locked behind Apple Pay on iPads and it isn’t even available on the iPads that Steenrod has, and since we decided to scope our experience to be four players each controlling a recycling base and trading between themselves, we set on using the networked drag-drop approach. We began to research how to implement this as well as begin to design our UI, since that will be majorly important in letting the players know what they can do and what they are supposed to do as well as just facilitate the overall experience.

 

But now that our concept is set, production can, and has, started in earnest.

This is a big week. We spent the first half running around to prepare things for our Big Wednesday Playtest. We finished a new iteration of the Sustainable Town Builder game, complete with a template system, allowing for speedy iteration. Our new game, what we are calling Filth Fling, had its first-iteration paper prototype completed, and we added art to our only digital prototype.

Wednesday, we went to playtest at THREE DIFFERENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. It was amazing to get so much data, but we were exhausted. It is hard to match the energy of excited, engaged elementary school students, which probably means some things were working. We say some great social behavior emerge from two of our prototypes. The students discussed decisions they needed to make with each other. First we went to Aiken Elementary, where we tested with the combined classes of Mrs. Jil Graham and Mrs. Jen Kusserow. The students were broken up into three groups and rotated through our prototypes so that they would all get to try each. We then headed to Myrtle Elementary, where we visited Mrs. Kristie Rosgone’s class. Throughout the morning, the wonderful Keystone Oaks Technology Coordinator Mrs. Carol Persin accompanied us.

 

In the afternoon, we went to Avonworth Elementary and tested with a group of students under the masterful instruction of Mrs. Irene Pendel and Erin Cawley.

We learned that the kids got really excited about the crafting in Junkyard Divers, loved the energy of Filth Fling, and, once they understood the rules in the Sustainable Town Simulator, became engrossed with its systems. Hopefully, we can recycle these prototypes to extract these resonant elements and use them to craft an even better experience.

Once back, we began to iterate on these ideas, research setting up a networked communication between iPads to allow for a multiplayer game, and continued polishing our branding material, including our poster and team photo.

A busy week for us over at the Flower Power Project Room. The first half of the week was preparation for visiting Steenrod again for a playtesting session. We met with Jesse to discuss our concepts and get feedback, and we set up a Mac Mini for developing on the iPad, our chosen game platform.

For our trip to Steenrod, we brought samples of different art to get reactions from the kids, two game prototypes, and another improv game to use as a warm-up. Our entire team went to Steenrod for this large playtest. When we arrived, the club had gotten larger than it was on our previous visit, which means that we get more feedback and interested students, but also need to corral more high-energy elementary school students. Being a teacher is a vastly underappreciated job.

The second half of the week was spent Reflecting on feedback and proceeding with various threads of production. We continued to work on our branding material and create art for digital prototypes, we finished the first few builds of the iPad digital prototype of our Junkyard Explorer game, and began work on a new set of prototypes. On of these is a game in which the players need to push trash around to get it to the proper recycling bin, and the other is one where players take roles and help design a sustainable town.

The end of our week was big news: on Wednesday of next week, we would be playtesting at three different schools. Time to get ready.

This week we had our second visit to Steenrod, but our first visit with the students.  We were excited to meet the students and begin our co-creation process.

We had prepared questions and activities ahead of time. We were interested in learning what they liked to play, how they played with each other, what they already knew about sustainability, and their opinions on it. Once there, we began working through our plan.

We started with Human Symphony, an improv game where everyone stands in a circle and passes a psychic ball of energy around. When you receive the energy, you must begin to make a simple noise that you continue to repeat. You then pass the ball while continuing the noise. The game progresses and becomes a collage of everyone’s sound. We talked about the game and heard what the children thought of it. One of the teachers said they felt self conscious. We asked who else felt self conscious and everyone, including us, raised their hands. We said that it was ok and that we all felt that way, that this was a safe space where we could be silly and not judge each other. Hopefully, this helped to create a space where they felt comfortable being honest and playing even with new people like us. 

Next we talked to the kids about recycling and sustainability and heard what they did and what they thought were problems. The students told us what their family did and what they think could be better in their community. We had the students do a drawing exercise where they drew what they thought of when hearing about sustainability, then switched the papers and had them draw the biggest obstacle to sustainability.  Before leaving, we got recommendations of what they liked to play.

We finished off our week by playing through their recommendations to research and brainstormed ideas, conducting a team meeting where we all expressed what we needed from each other to work effectively, and met with our advisers.

Kickoff week started with no delay. After settling into our room and getting situated, our advisers whisked us away to Wheeling, West Virginia to meet with our clients, the Steenrod Elementary School’s Green Team. During our trip, we were able to meet with Mrs. Dietrich, the principal, Mrs. Railing, the 5th grade science teacher, and Mrs. Van Horn, the PE teacher. They seemed very excited about the Green Team and teaching the students about sustainability. They had showed the students a documentary about waste and started a school garden, but they still had many concerns about the school’s and Wheeling’s current practices. Hoping to have a more sustainable community, they hoped that by educating the students on practices, they would spread a more green lifestyle to their home that would hopefully continue to spread.

That’s where we come in. Our goal is to create something in collaboration with these students that help them learn practices and strategies on how to lead sustainable lives, a task we believe we are well equipped to handle. It is also a task on which we don’t have time to dawdle. We created a RACI chart to split up responsibilities and began researching technology to use, recycling and sustainability games, art inspirations, and facts on being green. Here’s to a strong start, and hopefully our excitement and energy will sustain what is now officially Project Flower Power through creating a memorable and educational experience.