After a weekend attempting to build a custom app with the help of Nitsan Shai, we were able to get a version working. Not only did it have all the functionality we wanted, but it even had chat built in. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. With this in mind, we decided to make the switch. Our UI designer Kai-Chi created a first draft of what this app interface might look like, and our programmers took over as masters of this initial skeleton code.
This new app meant new discussions about game design as well. We spoke with one of our advisers, Dave Cuylba, and came to the conclusion that a chat interface might not be best for getting people engaged with the experience. Our design team talked about alternatives and realized we could achieve our intended goal using a seating arrangement that emphasized small group discussions.
These groups would be mixes of all one civilization, half-and-half, or other combinations. Our hope is that these experience experiments encourage not only interesting conversation during the game, but also unique reflection of one’s personal experience afterward.
Changing our technology along with some major game design elements was a risky decision for the team, but we think we can pull them off. Long term, we’re hoping that these changes give us more flexibility in creating the experience we want.
Our next big exciting event: This weekend we get to go to New York to see the actual space we’ll be presenting in. Many pictures to come!
