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.
Our Scrum board during week 10.
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.
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