This week was almost completely focused on halves presentations. Several of our team members caught the GDC bug and it meant that things moved a little slower than usual. We did start off the week by discussing the feedback we received from our last playtest and played catch-up with the members who had been away.
We had the opportunity to do a little refinement of our experience based on those changes, but it was mostly polish. Our next step in development will require the team to agree on a direction. Everyone was so wiped out that making those decisions while preparing for halves was too much.
When it came down to preparing for halves we wanted most people to be able to talk to their favorite aspects of the project. Much of this was technical and so one of the biggest pushes we made as we refined our speech was to simplify and connect those ideas back to what we had learned and our overall process. The feedback we received on our deck from our mentors was that our topics were a little disconnected. We did our best to make the talk flow from one topic to another but it was admittedly a little rough.
The presentation itself went smoothly enough. We were asked how we would focus in on music creation, how we would frame this for observers, and too what extent we plan to make this about teaching music. The first question was the hardest because the idea of music creation is subjective, our hope is to give the guest a sense that they are creating music- but provide enough limitations that they can succeed easily. That said, it is a tough problem that we may not solve. We do plan to make this observable, but using speakers, lights, monitors and having mic inputs for outside guests. And, because it is an installation, this tool is not for teaching, it is mostly about exploration and creating an experience. I think we are all very interested to see what other feedback we receive.