Monthly Archives: April 2015

Week 14: Soft Opening

20 – 26 April, 2015:

During soft opening on Monday, the faculty stopped by our room to play our game.  There were several issues with bugs that we added to our bug tracker to fix this week.  The rest of the week was dedicated mainly to QA, bug fixes and continuous UI iteration.  Hilman fixed bugs on the server side and implemented new UI from Hannah and Wei.  Sam reduced the app size to import art assets, and added background music for the whole app.

Meanwhile, as things wrap up for the semester, Hannah has been working on the 3 minute and 30 second videos.  She met with Vasso this week to conduct interviews for the video and edited together footage from our playtests, demo, and project work to create videos that would describe our project and be a tool for Vasso to promote the app.

We also had the opportunity to have a playtest on Wednesday, and found out there were some places where the kids had trouble, such as understanding the “make a wish” scene would grant more items for customisation.  Thus, we made some changes to the Lending Hearts star and separated the wishing volcano and leaderboard to clarify the contribution aspect of the game.  We also made the UI brighter, with more visible buttons, as a result of this playtest.

20150422playtest_1

20150422playtest_2

20150422playtest_4

20150422playtest_3

Next week, we hope to work together to have documentation, an updated website and a postmortem for the project in time for softs online.  Ruchi will be accountable for organising our team archive.  Programmers will continue to work on bug fixes and Hannah will create the final versions of our videos based on our advisers’ feedback.  We are looking forward to the ETC Spring Showcase on Thursday 30 April and then will start preparing for our final presentations the following week.

Week 13: Focus on Constellations and Customisation

13 – 19 April, 2015:

We chose to focus our final week before softs on constellations and customisation aspects of the app.

For the constellations game, work was done on the opening screen, directions to draw and being able to visit the gallery afterwards.

For planet customisation, more than 200 unique art assets were added to the pool of available items to be unlocked.  The customisation UI was tweaked yet again, with a new bar for adding name and description of the planet.

Our last playtest at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh was the first chance we were able to test the visit scene, and kids seemed to enjoy seeing other planets and got inspiration for decorating their own.

We also began some other work for client handoff and softs online.  Wei created three concepts for the app logo, from which Vasso and the board selected one.  Hannah began work pulling footage for the 30 second and 3 minute videos from our playtests, and writing interview questions for Vasso to answer.  Cheryl-Jean began the conversation about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for apps for kids with the legal representative from Lending Hearts.

Lending Hearts app icon, option 1 (selected by the board)

Lending Hearts app icon, option 1 (selected by the board)

Lending Hearts app icon, option 2

Lending Hearts app icon, option 2

Lending Hearts app icon, option 3

Lending Hearts app icon, option 3

For soft opening, Sam got the updated visit scene and gifting functionality ready, and a build combining his and Hilman’s work on the constellations game, customisation and UI is ready to be presented to the faculty on Monday morning.

Week 12: Focus on Lending Hearts Star

6 – 12 April, 2015:

For week 12, we chose to focus on the Lending Hearts Star, hoping to have a complete experience loop

The week started with our sixth playtest of the semester on Monday, at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.  We were able this time to get more children in our target audience, as well as a teenager who was able to understand the contribution loop and provide some feedback for the UI.  Feedback from the playtest informed our work for the week.

Hannah is working on the promotional videos for our project.  She also created the effects and feedback for the wishing volcano this week, and glow effects for the Lending Hearts star.  In addition to preparing for playtests, designers Wei and Ruchi are working on the UI portions including tutorials.  In the coming weeks, Hannah, Wei and Ruchi will all be contributing art assets for the customisation game.

Hilman added updates to the Lending Hearts star surface, and worked on the galaxies and solar system screens to get them linked correctly in the experience loop.  Sam has worked extensively on the backend for the contribution loop this week, and helped troubleshoot and solve bugs.  The main task for programmers this week was to create the final scene we needed, the “Visit” scene, and lock the playtest build for next Monday by Friday.  The online task management through our bug tracking system was well-received and is useful for establishing dependencies, blockages and deadlines.

Solar system scene as of week 12.  Planets move and are selectable.

Solar system scene as of week 12. Planets move and are selectable.

Galaxies scene as of week 12.  Includes link to constellation game.

Galaxies scene as of week 12. Includes link to constellation game.

Newsboard on Lending Hearts star as of week 12.

Newsboard on Lending Hearts star as of week 12.

Wishing Volcano on Lending Hearts star as of week 12.

Wishing Volcano on Lending Hearts star as of week 12.

Customisation as of week 12.

Customisation as of week 12.

We have also started to consider plans for publication and archiving, as well as getting a clear idea for what the final project will look like.  Cheryl-Jean has a plan and schedule in place with our listed priorities, and this week, Wei and Hannah have been organising our folders and asset names to prepare for archiving.  We spoke with Vasso during our client meeting about requirements for app publishing, and hope to get started on the first steps and logos this coming week.

Our upcoming work for week 13 will include completing our videos and preparing for soft openings.  Our work will focus on the constellation and customisation parts of the experience.  we have our final playtest on Monday and intend to spend much of next week polishing and fixing bugs, as well as considering semester end goals and documents.

 

Week 11: Focus on Whole Experience

30 March – 5 April, 2015:

We have entered the finalisation phase of our project, and much of the final weeks will be focused on polish (especially UI) and refinement of what we already have in place.  Each week until softs, we will focus on a different component of the project.  This week, we will be looking at the whole user experience and thinking about the player’s journey through the Lending Hearts universe.  In week 12, we will focus on the galaxies, solar system and Lending Hearts star, and in week 13, we will return to the core gameplay of the constellations and customisation games.

Production shifted a little this week and Cheryl-Jean implemented some process changes.  First of all, we are now using digital task management through our bug tracking system, logging tasks that come up from playtests and meetings.  Additionally, we met every day this week to go over the different scenes, screens and tutorials we need for the whole experience, walking through a part of the player’s journey each day, creating paper versions of each layout and logging tasks based on that.  These paper layouts answered many design questions and filled in some gaps in knowledge, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Design diagrams detailing each scene.

Design diagrams detailing each scene.

As for project progress, Wei designed the function and navigation for the gallery, wishing volcano and solar system, and Ruchi created tutorial and help screens.  Hannah focused on UI for the solar system and visit scenes.  Hilman implemented gallery functionality and made updates to the solar system scene, which now allows planets to be selected and information to be shown.  Finally, Sam worked on the backend system for the wishing volcano and unlocking items, as well as loading screens, toolbars and help buttons.

Solar system scene as of week 11.  Planets are moving and player's planet is indicated.

Solar system scene as of week 11. Planets are moving and player’s planet is indicated.

Gallery functionality as of week 11.  Implemented by Hilman this week.

Gallery functionality as of week 11. Implemented by Hilman this week.

Tutorial screens created by Ruchi for opening of app for first time, created this week.

Tutorial screens created by Ruchi for opening of app for first time, created this week.

Visit scene layout created by Hannah this week.

Visit scene layout created by Hannah this week.

Contribution or "making a wish" scene and dragging to volcano created by Sam this week.

Contribution or “making a wish” scene and dragging to volcano created by Sam this week.

Coin animation and progress bar for wishing volcano, created by Sam this week.

Coin animation and progress bar for wishing volcano, created by Sam this week.

Unlocking items created by Sam this week.

Unlocking items created by Sam this week.

On Friday, we had our fifth playtest which took place at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.  As it was our first time there, we had a little trouble approaching kids of the right age group and setting up the playtest.  This playtest taught us a lot about what worked and what didn’t in the UI since we were testing with younger kids, and also informed our future playtests at the Children’s Museum.  With a better, more complete build and a clearer plan for our next playtest on Monday, we hope to improve on our playtesting process and effectiveness.

 

After covering the whole experience this week, we want to narrow it down to the Lending Hearts Star next week, focusing on the gallery, newsboard and wishing volcano scenes and the galaxies and solar system.  We are thinking ahead about what we will need to finish by the end of the semester for a complete experience, and prioritising features as such.  Finally, we will continue playtesting with two more visits to the Children’s Museum to learn more about how we can improve the experience we are building.