Following on the feedback from the last playtest, work on the project proceeded as follows in preparation for our next Playtest. The goals for this playtest are to evaluate whether the new narrative changes are distracting to players and to what degree players’ goals/actions are clarified as a result of the new narrative framing. Additionally, this playtest will focus on the Department of Defense and Department of Interior. The previous playtest’s materials are broadly reorganized under the Department of Interior.
Design completed notes for the visual appearance of artifacts in the scene. These narrative details were integrated into a spreadsheet that could double as an asset tracker for easy reference by the programmer and artist when creating/importing 3D assets into the game. In addition to replacing placeholder assets, Design designated certain artifacts to correspond to certain perspectives on Nuclear Testing. Thus, the 3 of the 12 artifacts corresponded to International relations/hard-power diplomacy (aka the perspective likely held by players of the Department of Defense). Besides the DoD, design chose the Department of Energy (i.e. the pure scientific perspective), the CDC (the public health perspective), and the Department of Interior (the economic benefits/Native American relations perspective). The next playtest would separate players into specific departments and force them to present 2 of the 12 total artifacts to the entire group in order to gain funding for their department. Tentatively, those departments are DoD and DoI.
Similarly, Programming made updates to the build based on the changes made to the overall flow of the experience (i.e. Forms submission fields/Google API calls). Rather than submit RPG backstory specific to their character, Players will instead only vote on discrete options (i.e. pick 2 of 12 artifacts, apportion X amount of money from $100 million, etc.). We believe this choice will decrease player confusion/difficulty associated with traditional roleplaying. Overall, we decided we wanted players to form opinions on the issue of nuclear testing over the issue of who they were as a character. Besides Forms submission fields/Google API calls, Programming would also update our Inventory UI to reflect the decision to only allow players to explore Dr. Nolan’s office (as opposed to navigate between multiple offices/locations). Rather than a backpack, players will simply select 2 from the 12 total objects in Nolan’s office to submit to their Department Boss (i.e. with an official-looking government document).
Production began the process of recruiting playtesters (~12 total playtesters), with the assumption that they would playtest 2 roles (DoD and DoI). Production also initially looked into Hopin as an option to host the playtest. It was decided to continue using Zoom for the time being (given that Hopin required a paid subscription to host more than 7 people on a single call). Production also designed feedback forms and signup materials in order to streamline the process of playtesting.
Goals for next week revolve mostly around executing the future playtest and the rehearsal involved therein (for Derek and Kat acting as Department of Defense and Interior respectively).