Our team was mainly working for Playtest Day this week. We didn’t have enough time to implement the 2D scene in our playable prototype, but we were able to finish 1969’s AR scene and photo album onboarding process. We decided to record the video for the onboarding and AR scene and then test the 2D scene with a web-based prototype tool. Moreover, we could combine the 2D prototype with a usability testing tool, called Maze so that we can track the user’s behavior in detail.
While our programmer developed the prototype, the artists were working on adding new UI and rendering final 2D art assets for the final product. We were discussing together to see which part feels authentic and suitable and which part feels wrong regarding art style in general. It was important for our team to make sure all the art looks consistent throughout the experience.
One of our art challenges was having a topography in our AR scene. Many faculty pointed out that our AR environment based on the paper map looks flat and not interesting enough. Our designer did research about the real topography of Hill District and tried to adapt it to the AR scene. As the area that we cover in the map is not that broad area to show the dramatic changes, we added some hill part on the top of the map and added animation when the 3D environment appeared to make it more interesting.
Lastly, our sound designer started working on the background music and ambiance sounds for the various location including the jazz bar and diner. We might be able to get the whole sounds asset in 2 weeks!
We are working fast and efficiently to finish up all tasks in the semester timeline right now and hope to have great feedback from playtesting next week!