Reduce the scenes & Revise the scripts
Last week, we discussed with clients about the limitations and challenges just after the quarter walkaround. Fortunately, this time, we clarify expectations and set a clear boundary of our works. To make everyone stay on the same page, we went through the script again and prioritized each scene by client’s order. Later, the client helped us to reduce the settings and also mark the highlights for specific lines. Cutting off the lower priority scenes and focusing on the show’s critical moments makes it easier to plan the development schedule with a reasonable scope. As the most valuable takeaway from BVW, the product should be built by iteration cycles so we always have the flexibility to adjust our focus and tune a better experience.
New Restrictions
Scope down is not the only change this week. As the client’s original plan, we will include professional actors from Broadway into our products to rehearse with them and walk through the showcase in Pittsburgh. Working with real actors and filming the whole process is very exciting to us but also challenging. However, under the CMU healthcare policy, it’s strongly discouraged to host an in-person gathering activity. We are informed that we are no longer to host the playtest with out-state visitors; therefore, we have no choice but to move on a plan B.
Creativity Solves Problem
Spending the whole weekend on communication and brainstorming, we tried to meet every stakeholder’s expectation and control the risk. Eventually, we came up with an alternative plan that split the original showcase into two-stage proof of concept. Team ReAct will focus on technology development and user experience design and then set up the outdoor venue in Pittsburgh for playtesting. After the first-stage testing at CMU, team ReAct will wrap the products and deliver them to New York. This time, team Odeon will set up the outdoor venue for the actual show and film the whole process for second-stage testing. Team ReAct will also support the second-stage testing by online/remote assistance and technical troubleshooting.
We are very proud of our alternative creative solution. It might still be uncomfortable to embrace the entire remote working environment or online co-working, especially for location-based experience and theme entertainment. However, in the “post-pandemic.” era, it is worth a try.
