Home Front: Week Four

The Work This Week:

Week four was spent preparing for Quarters.

The best way I have found to explain Quarters presentations at the ETC to someone who has not lived through them is “your first pitch to your funders.” Next Monday, groups faculty will tour project rooms for twenty minutes at a time, while teams explain their projects and their goals. Because time is tight for each group, teams must find ways to concisely explain their projects, giving enough detail to be helpful but leaving enough time for faculty’s critiques and expert feedback

The groundwork for this process started early in the week, when Mr. Dorries selected the idea he wanted out of the two final pitches we had presented him; a radio play board game. Armed with his feedback, thoughts, and direction, we were able to take our initial design and begin to develop game-play mechanics.

To understand how to best approach table top game-play that stays emotionally relevant, our research has turned to examples currently on the market. We will be examining games such as The Grizzled, MonsterHearts, and Betrayal at House on the Hill. We’ll also be dissecting more free flowing role-playing  games such as Rosenstrasse, the story of interfaith marriages during Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany, and Little Bit of Lovin’, a three day LARP about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s. This week were fortunate to speak with Jessica Hammer, a developer of Rosenstrasse and faculty at ETC. Her advice has been vital to aiming our research further.

We ended our week with a call to Theater of War’s company manager Marjolaine Goldsmith. Having all our ideas collected for Quarters allowed for a solid check-in, and let us clearly communicate our direction to our client. Ms. Goldsmith’s feedback and comments helped us to finalize our direction with our initial design.

Home Front also completed our first major deadline; our branding materials are finished. Our immensely skilled artist Qiqi Feng was able to find a wonderful visual take on the feelings and intentions we hope this project will embody.