[schedule]
[evolution] [lessons learned]
Schedule
From
the onset, a multi-tiered development cycle utilizing the spiral process/rapid
prototyping was employed. Themed interactions were tested in the Alice
prototyping environment for the first half of the cycle, and the lessons
learned in those tests were applied to the evolutionary Lithtech codebase
that was developed in the second half of the cycle.
| Test |
Date |
#
of Testers |
Subject |
| 1 |
03/18/02 |
4 |
Alice
prototypes: tracking; casting; flying; catching; scooping |
| 2 |
03/29/02 |
3 |
Alice
prototypes: revised flying; tracking/targeting |
| 3 |
04/11/02 |
5 |
Alice
prototypes: revised flying; tracking/targeting with advancement |
| 4 |
04/22/02 |
4 |
Alice
prototypes: complete flying game (difficulty and visualisation),
FARTOv1 |
| 5 |
04/28/02 |
1 |
FARTOv2,
LT world, navigation and collection |
| 6 |
05/05/02 |
6 |
full
game test: VFX, VOX, SFX, FARTOv2, game states and transition |
Evolution
| Test |
Date |
Features
added/tested |
| 1 |
03/18/02 |
gesture
recognition, visual tracking, 3D navigation, catching, scooping |
| 2 |
03/29/02 |
improved
3D navigation (multimethod bending v. pointing) |
| 3 |
04/11/02 |
mini-games:
magic carpet flying and orb collection; shooting down dinosaurs |
| 4 |
04/22/02 |
mini-games:
magic carpet flying and orb collection/evasion; tracking 1 wizard |
| 5 |
04/28/02 |
full
FARTO, LT navigation/visualisation, collection, crude SFX |
| 6 |
05/05/02 |
final
score, SFX, VFX, training area, HUD, game states and transitions |
Lessons
Learned
-
FARTO
greatly increased competence and fun
-
nemesis'
personality played a major role in driving goal and motivation for
interaction (made chicken tracking, broke most carpet games)
-
feedback
needs to come coupled in as many forms as possible: audio/visual
HUD/environmental effects
-
high-precision
navigation is difficult, esp. with clipping plane action so bounding
volumes must be large and hit "head-on"
-
without
accurate texturing and lighting, depth perception is quite difficult.
to honor this, do not require guest to perform tasks that involve
arcing, or lobbed projectiles that need to be connected with in
a small area
-
HMD's
constraints need to be accounted for in design (saturation, resolution,
clipping area)
-
having
an instructor direct the guest as to his/her goal's and purpose
is much less enjoyable than receiving prompts in-game via HUD and
VOX
-
even
entertaining interactions grow old quickly and without story or
motivation for activity (like collecting the orbs) the experience
dies quickly and leaves the guest wondering about the purpose of
game elements than enjoying them
-
a
large percentage of guests expected the staff to control steering
as well as altitude, even though they were aware moving in the space
was the primary steering control
-
the
need for physical activity was split between gameplayers: some enjoyed
and appreciated it while it was a burden to others
-
technical
constraints (poor calibration, framerate) will kill an experience
despite other perks
-
attention
to feedback was almost solely directed at the top right-corner of
the screen. lower-right corner counterpart for orb collection was
ignored
-
poorly
timed HUD messages and sounds will confuse the guest and cause more
damage than help
-
more
seasoned guests (gamers) enjoyed the challenge of chasing orbs,
while it frustrated others. all though agreed the difficulty in
collection of the orbs should scale, and the experience shouldn't
last very long (5 min).
-
when
guests get into the experience, they tend to unconsciously pose/dodge
with minor variations of the body even though it may not affect
gameplay (in some cases it hinders it, i.e. two hands rule)
|
