This week, Studio Mar hosted our client Carl Rosendahl at CMU, to try our game in person! We also continued work on the phone controllers, physical markers, and UI designs.

Carl tests LineAR while Adrienne, Jonathan, and Everi look on.

Tech Update

The fractal-patterned cuboid origin marker we tested, with different designs on each face.

We fixed the turn-taking bug we had before, so the multiplayer should work without issue now. We also started working on developing an alternative controller for the paintbrush to run off another phone, as part of the same LineAR app. The phone controller, like our original idea for a handheld controller, would consist simply of a single button the user presses to draw and select menu options.

Origin Marker

We tested another origin marker design, this time using a cuboid with different faces than all the same faces. While Vuforia tracks it, it’s hard to tell whether it works well as an origin marker. We can’t get exact measurements for the Miller Gallery plinths, or guarantee that we’ll get any at all, so Marisa is going to design a custom large-scale origin marker for the installation.

Art + Design Update

Diagramming the state changes of UI elements as they’re selected on the palette.

This week, we continued improving the palette UI so that it accurately displays and allows the user to select brush colors. We also began working on other parts of the UI, including screens to display on the phones during onboarding to introduce the players to the game and how to play. And, since our final presentation is coming up, we’re also starting work on storyboarding the trailer and project summary videos.

We’ve also sent out our second round of the word prompt survey through Mechanical Turk. Hopefully the results from this survey will confirm our hypothesis about what makes a good “drawing and acting” combination.

Production Update

Unfortunately, Ideate is not sponsoring a booth at Carnival this year, so our next chance to set up the installation is at the Miller Gallery. Any playtesting done before that will have to be on our own. Installation for the Miller Gallery Senior Art Show starts on April 30th, a week before our final presentation is due for the class. Because of this, we need to have our game finished by April 27th, so we can get it set up the following week. Fortunately, this follows our previous production schedule, giving us a week to fix bugs, polish, and work on our presentation, videos, and post-mortem report in time for our class presentation on May 4th. After that, our final display will be at Meeting of Minds on May 9th.

Thanks for keeping up with Studio Mar, and check back next week for another update!