Blog

Week 14: Iterating

This week our team is focusing on iterating the existing product. Our development phase has ended. Now we need to polish the product. There are several areas we need to improve on. More sound effects Read more…

Week 13: Soft Opening

We had 7 guests coming in this Wednesday to playtest our experience. We ask playtesters to choose from one of the five acts. We also ask them to fill out a survey afterwards. Major takeaway Read more…

Week 11: Putting Pieces Together

This week, we have put pieces together, including sound, puzzles and storyline. Puzzle Progress: Inspired by the cow plant, Weidi designed a puzzle that involves cow plant. Story Progress: Brian has finished all five acts Read more…

Week 10: Puzzles!

This week our team’s focus is puzzle development. Weidi is working on our puzzle design and Ruoxi helps to find the right sound clips. Meanwhile Brian is working on the story script and Shawn is Read more…

Week 9: Halves Presentation

This Monday the team presented to guests at Electronic Arts on our project and current progress. Shawn and Brian joined us remotely via Zoom from Pittsburgh. Weidi made our presentation slides and embedded the sound Read more…

Week 8: First Playable Build

The team started the week with writing the storyline. We took faculty’s advice of writing for story first and then adapt the story to Alexa format. We had our first playable build up until Story Read more…

Week 7: Direction Set

On Monday, our client gave us a clear direction that the team should go. The team should develop on our spice market demo that we showed in our previous prototype demo, and combine storytelling with Read more…

Week 6: Exploring More

After our client reemphasized replayability, growing community and more inclusive age group, the team revisited our previous ideas with the question in mind: how can we make it a shared experience that has higher retention Read more…

Week 5: Prototypes

This week the team made three prototypes and have iterated at least once before showing them to client on Thursday. From there the team decide to purse the route of puzzle-centered adventure game.  Tech side Read more…

Week 4: Quarters

This is a week of receiving and responding to feedback for us. We also developed the composition box and nailed down our metrics. We had faculty walk around in Pittsburgh on Monday, open house in Read more…

Week 3: Design Pitch

This week the team brainstormed and had a design pitch to client on Wednesday. Meanwhile we finalized Logo design and short description.  Design Process We started brainstorming near the end of last week. The whole Read more…

Week 2: Research

This week, the team did research on a list of voice experiences available on Alexa and Google Home. We presented these discoveries to our client on Wednesday. Here is a list of games that we Read more…

Week 1: Sul Sul!

If you are a Sims fan, you might know already what Sul Sul means. For those who haven’t played the Sims, this means “Hello” in Simlish, the Sims official language. Yes, this is a project Read more…