22 – 29 March, 2015:

With the semester’s end looming and a long list of features that we’d still like to implement, this week was a challenge to complete our production phase and lock features so we can have some time to finalise and polish.

Ruchi and Wei prepared extensively for ETC playtest day, devising a system to test the contribution loop using physical tokens and a plastic cup in lieu of the wishing volcano system that the programmers would not have implemented in time.

On the production end, Cheryl-Jean has organised the final three playtests this semester at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, to occur once a week until softs.  These will occur on the 3rd, 6th and 13th of April.  We are also starting to get more diligent about logging bugs for programmers to make the experience smoother.

This week, our prioritised user stories were contribution, unlocking, newsboard, gallery, friends, leaderboard.  However, we will work on them in order of priority in order to ensure that the final features are bug-free and polished, and it is likely that we will modify or integrate the lower priority items into what we can make, or leave them for the future, keeping the goals of companionship and creativity in mind.  On the programming end, Sam is taking the lead on the backend systems for contribution and unlocking, while Hilman is in charge of the newsboard and gallery.

Hannah has been working on UI for the customisation game and visual feedback for the constellations game as per feedback from the Lending Hearts feedback.  On Monday, the team gathered to go over feedback from our previous playtest and determine next steps for this Saturday.

Saturday was the ETC playtest day where we playtested with sixteen kids ranging from 7 – 12 years old.  While the contribution loop seemed engaging, we realised we had to explain a lot to the players as they went through the experience, making UI our biggest hurdle to tackle in the coming weeks.

We have a better idea of the realities of scope now and are consistently narrowing down our concept to better fit the goals of the project.  Next week we will focus on walking through the user experience, delineate granular tasks for each team member, and put a heavy emphasis on the UI.

Below are some photos from ETC playtest day.

Here are some constellations and planets made by playtesters.

16 – 22 March, 2015:

Much of this week was devoted to our halves presentation on Wednesday.  We refined and iterated on our slides, and Hilman prepared to show a live demo.  Wei did a good job of tying together the vision and making all the slides look polished.  In our halves presentation, we wanted to show the vision and direction of our project, our progress with our product, and what changes we had made based on quarters feedback.  We were happy that Vasso and Mary Nell were able to join us at the ETC for our halves presentation.

Towards the end of the week, final touches were made on the constellations and customisation parts of the experience and Ruchi made a plan for the Lending Hearts playtest.  Cheryl-Jean coordinated the Lending Hearts visit on Saturday 21 March, and set up playtest sessions with three other ETC teams that volunteered their time: Cat Scratch, Legato and Stratos.  The families were also brought on a tour around the ETC and met Anthony Daniels who was kind enough to say hello, which was a highlight for many.

During the Lending Hearts playtest, we addressed some issues focusing on gameplay and UI for the constellations game.  Additionally, there was some confusion about the controls for the customisation part of the experience.  Based on this, we have come up with tasks to refine the UI and test different controls, to be implemented for our next playtests.

We enter our final week of production focusing on big picture features, such as unlocking content, gifting to friends and contribution to the Lending Hearts star (Sam).  Additionally, we look to implement the newsboard and gallery on the Lending Hearts star surface (Hilman).  Hannah will be working on UI for planet customisation and visual feedback for the constellation game, including the art for the new “black hole” feature that reduces the number of stars.  Ruchi will be working on constellation UI and preparing for our next playtest on Saturday 28 March, and Wei will be designing the overall system and creating art for it.  Cheryl-Jean will be planning for future playtests as well as QA and logging bugs.

There is a lot to do in the last stretch of the semester and we are constantly managing our scope and thinking ahead.  We are confident we can deliver a final product.

2 – 8 March, 2015:

With Hilman, Sam, Cheryl-Jean and Wei away for Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Ruchi and Hannah held the fort at the ETC this week.

On the design front, we are starting to focus on the big picture over the individual parts.  Ruchi’s work included designing the login and tutorial and creating UI elements for the constellations game.  Wei worked on the design for the unlocking and reward system.

In programming, Hilman implemented the “whack-a-star” gameplay to replace the previous “memory” design for the constellations mini game, which came from playtesting feedback that showed that many kids were impatient to wait to see the whole sequence of stars before clicking them.  He also added Cheryl-Jean’s sound effects and created a layout for the shop.  Sam implemented the colour changing and UI scrolling for customisation, as well as a field for players to input a description of their planet.

Hannah’s work has been to create the final art and layout for galaxies and solar system.

Cheryl-Jean has been finalising details for the Lending Hearts playtest day on Saturday 21 March, including coordinating tours and visits to other project teams for the families, as well as planning future playtests for the rest of the semester.

Next week is Spring Break, so with Sam and Cheryl-Jean away, the team will continue to work and prepare for our halves presentation.  Working remotely is not optimal but we hope to continue progressing on our project while keeping everyone in the loop, and have provided Vasso with a client update in lieu of a meeting this week.

23 February – 1 March, 2015

Stellar 6 was very touched to be invited to the Lending Hearts Gala on 26 February, and coming into contact first hand with the community that Vasso has built really hit home the importance and meaning of what we are making this semester.  We had a great time at the gala and it gave us a deeper sense of what we can hope to give, or how we too can lend our hearts, through our project.

Much of this week’s work was centred around the customisation component of the experience.  While Hilman began working on the login and server, Sam implemented many features for planet customisation: dragging items, inventory, and a new scaling/rotation control, to name a few.  This was supported by Ruchi, Wei and Hannah, who together created more than 50 assets for planet customisation in just this one week.

Ruchi and Wei attended the “Playtest to Prove” workshop on Wednesday, and Cheryl-Jean put plans together for our playtest on Friday at Elizabeth Forward School District.  Through Dr. Keruskin, we were able to meet with five kids from Central Elementary on Friday 27 February, who played our customisation and constellation games.  We soon pinpointed specific issues with the gameplay and UI in the constellation game, and narrowed in on the kids’ motivation to draw in the customisation game, all of which will inform our design changes in the weeks to come.