Week 4

Hello, everyone! Welcome to our week 4 newsletter.

This week we worked heavily on pen and paper prototyping ideas, and narrowed down on a structure we would like to develop an experience around. We will be building an experience with different phases:

1. The first phase would be getting introduced to the A.I character and building a voice interaction
2. The second phase would focus on teaching the AI a few things like teaching them about certain objects or colors
3. The third phase would be using the objects and colors taught earlier to solve an environmental puzzle

We are currently testing a level for the experience with two different ideas:

The first idea focuses on an AI character that is new to our worldly objects and we are teaching it basic object shapes and colors. Over time we would be using this object to test out a level where the player seeks information from the AI character by asking it few questions, the AI responds by telling what it sees. The player will then help the AI navigate the space. This is a tech demo also meant to test how navigation would work with voice integration. 

Our second idea is an environmental puzzle adventure. You and your AI companion are on a river – floating on two separate ice-cubes. You are given a rope that is long enough to reach the AI but you are unable to throw it unless it’s attached to an heavier object to make it to your AI companion. The AI companion on the other hand has a few objects floating near them that could be used to help the player. The voice interaction would revolve around communicating what is needed and using that to clear the environmental obstacles. For instance, a sphere could be used to increase the weight and throw the rope, while if the two have to stay separated to avoid an obstacle then the player must ask for a sharp object to cut the rope.

Our programmers are working toward developing an iterated prototype based on the basic one we had earlier. The navigation demo is under works as of now, and we are also working on communication with unity. We are also writing skills for Alexa.

As for production, we have just set up Jira for task management and are relying on daily scrums that will be continued throughout the semester. This week we were able to get our instructors to try out our demo and get feedback based on it. We shared our ideas at the start of the week with our peers for additional feedback.

The coming week we will be showcasing our work to visitors for our quarters walkarounds at EA. We completed our branding and should have our poster and half-sheets soon!