“All good things must come to an end,” said someone who must not have liked good things very much. Alas, faithful reader(s), we’ve reached the end of Project Prism, but there is good news—as we showed off the game to the many visitors we received in our project room this week for the first annual ETC Spring Open House, we realized that we made something truly special. This game has the ability to make a real difference in the lives of the people who play it, and we’ve been gratified to see the enthusiasm it’s generated thus far, and we can’t wait to see what happens when it’s out in the world in just a short little while.
We squashed the remaining bugs, continued to sand and polish any rough edges, and completed work on the iOS version of the game. We’ll be publishing on the Apple App Store just as soon as their approval process allows!
Next week the team will be giving a final presentation on the project. This will focus on what we’ve accomplished since the halves presentation and if and how we’ve achieved our goals. We also were able to conduct a final playtest at a new school whose students had not been exposed to the game at all and to record the post-game discussion as led by one of the school’s instructors. It was important for us before the project concluded to see that the game/discussion combination was working as intended, untainted by any prior familiarity with what we were making. And sure enough, we saw the same meaningful discussions taking place and the emergence of burgeoning empathy. While measuring long-term transformation and change is beyond the scope of this particular project, it’s our sincere hope that this game will, in its own small way, lead to a more tolerant and understanding world.
Special thanks to our advisers Mike Christel and Scott Stevens, our subject matter expert Michelle Lubetsky, Michalene Mills at Beech Bottom Primary, and to the other incredibly gracious individuals who hosted as at Beech Bottom, Marshall Elementary, Avonworth Elementary, and Edgeworth Elementary.
