This week, True North continued work on story iteration and game design for the interactive experience. We produced a first draft of the story script, and created a “paper prototype” for the player interactions. We used a branching Google survey to distribute the prototype, accessible at this LINK. The story focused on a small group of students, faced with varied situations of academic decisions. The goal of the draft was to create an experience with appropriate content (true to life situations and academic integrity insights) and a structure that simulated branching (Officially termed “parallel structure”). After hearing feedback from the class on main campus, we will be adjusting the next draft to focus on fleshing out the characters to add more emotional connection. Next week, we will release another playable prototype. In the meantime, the class will brainstorm on sample scene scenarios that incorporate the material discussed in class.
Discussion in class also prompted another important element of the experience: Is there a way to create an experience that immerses the user enough that they will be able to forget its subject matter of academic integrity? That’s something to consider, and as True North continues to progress, we will be iterating on this idea of how to connect both an engaging story with insightful teachings. On another level of the interaction design, we are weighing the considerations of replayability, “winning” criteria and player objectives.
Switching gears to programming, Hilman, Emily and Tim have set up the server and elements of the player experience. These include moving objects, interaction, transitions and dialogue system. In addition to these elements, we have our server up and running to host the web experience.
On the art side, True North has preliminary branding concepts, including 
a poster, half sheet and logo. You can see examples of this branding in the media tab, and throughout the website. The concept behind the branding imagery is to capture the metaphor of our team name “True North” as a moral direction. Since the project deals with academic integrity and moral decision-making, Ross created an image that reflects the difficult path of moral integrity towards the ultimate light of what is right, the north star. The image also plays off of the idea of a moral compass. After some feedback, Ross added a figure at the center, pointing to the sky’s north star, allowing us to underscore the importance of following a morally focused journey.
Below are some additional notes on True North’s progress for the week. Next week we will continue to iterate on story, and begin the process of creating assets to integrate into the interaction system.
Production
- Contacted clients regarding story direction, awaiting feedback
- submitted website desc and logo to ETC web page
- communicated with Janice on room theming
- attended class, discussed project iteration, scenarios and psychological motivations more in depth
Programming
- Production server is running
- Able to detect click on an object
- Looking into ways to implement page transition
- Setting up scene management for the experience
Game Design / Story
- First draft of story completed
- second draft to be completed for next week
- first playtest / paper prototype distributed and discussed with the class
- Updated design mock-ups
- Incorporating research and learning goals into story/game elements
Art
- Branding Materials
- Environment Concept
- UI Research
- Assets cataloged
