Sorry for no update last week–Studio Mar was busy with Carnival and didn’t get a lot of work done. This week, Studio Mar tried to push to a stable release so we can spend the next week polishing and preparing for our presentation. We originally wanted to have the game to a point where we could install it in the Miller Gallery the week of April 30th, but we fell behind schedule because of Carnival and other conflicts, so we decided not to try to display the game at the Miller Gallery. Instead, we’re focusing on putting in art assets, getting the controller working, and getting ready for our final presentation on May 4th–just one more week away!

Art + Design Update

User interface

With all of the game features added and programmed in last week, this week we focused on getting in the final art and button assets for the user interface. We decided that, unfortunately, we don’t have time to make a second prototype of the palette, so we incorporated UI elements based on the existing palette design. Several elements are already represented on the physical palette marker (like brush type and size, left), so we added virtual elements that either go over existing elements on the palette, or represent actions that aren’t already on the palette (like the undo button, right).

Paintbrush + Origin Markers

We also created our final paintbrush and origin marker designs, which are made to match the art style of the palette. The paintbrush marker (pictured at left) is inspired by Mergecube, but is our own design. It can be easily printed out and taped together, and will be mounted on the phone controller for the paintbrush. The large origin marker (pictured at right) is a large cylinder, so that players can step away and walk around the marker without losing tracking, but is also designed to function as a table to store the game equipment when it’s not in use. The tabletop can function on its own as a flat marker, if the side of the cylinder (not pictured) fails to track well. The game will include support for flat, 2D versions of each marker, in case the 3D markers are too unreliable during demonstrations.

Sound

Now that we have our button and UI elements, we could create a list of specific actions that need sounds. As an augmented reality game, we can’t direct our players’ view and expect them to see visual prompts or feedback. So, sounds are key to giving users feedback when they do an action–like undoing a stroke or selecting a brush option–as well as when they need to pay attention–such as when it’s their turn to draw. This week, we began finding and editing sound effects to go into the final build, including sounds for each button (undo, skip word, next word), brush option (size, color, type), and a fanfare that plays for a player when it’s their turn.

Tech Update

Bugs with multiplayer and other aspects of gameplay have been fixed–the major obstacle left on the technical front is the phone controller, which is key to gameplay. There are still a few problems to be worked out before May 4th, but we are hopeful that the controller will work well enough for our demonstration then. As far as multiplayer, the server is automatically assigned and all players automatically join it. The turn order is also automatically assigned.

We are looking to acquire an additional phone to use for the phone controller, as well as an iPad for spectators to watch the game without putting on a headset. The game, including the phone controller, should run on any recent phone, but we don’t particularly want to give up our personal devices for, say, the two and half hours the game will be running at Meeting of Minds on May 9th. We believe we can get the extra hardware, but even if we don’t, the game is still perfectly playable for one person with two phones, and players can spectate through a laptop or another device.

Production Update

We’re in the home stretch–one more week until our final presentation! We’re really focusing on finishing the game itself, ideally by Tuesday, so that we can present our most polished version on Friday (May 4th). However, we’re also starting to work on our other deliverables–a game trailer, project summary video, and post-mortem report, which are all do after the end of the semester. To that end, we’re starting to collect images and video of this project, including this clip of your producer hard at work looking up sounds. Watch the clip for a peek into a typical work day at Studio Mar!

(If the video clip isn’t showing up in the post, click here or copy+paste this URL: https://youtu.be/O_8urxy1xho)

After next week’s post, we will make one more post to share our videos and post-mortem report, and then that’ll it be it for the semester. Thanks for keeping up with Studio Mar, and tune in next week for our post-presentation blog post!