Old Streets Adventure: Play Test 2: Spring 2019

Author: Bill Fischer in collaboration with students from the KCAD students as part of The EPIC Project.

Project Overview

A place based augmented reality driven game that:

Tells the story of old Grand Rapids in a way that incorporates animation, video, sound and gameplay.
Accommodates a variety of mobile devices (phone, small tablet, large tablet).
Provides a game experience that accommodates 1-30 persons.
Is packaged as part of a GRPM and/or K-12 lesson.
Can be packaged as a school field trip and/or integrated into existing GRPM educational programming, such as the 3rd - 6th grade Summer Immerse program.
Provides a non-game experience that is informational.
Integrates Universal Design Principles

This Slide Show documents the game play

Old Streets Game

Play Test 2

Overview

Test Date April 9: 2019
Present from KCAD: Kyleigh Daniels, Jeremy Fairman, Leanne Wisner, Luke Cleveland, Mackenzie Brown, Brenna Pilotti
Present from GRPM Staff: Erin Koren (Museum Educator), Gina Bivens (Historian), Holly Waldenmeyer (Registrar and Collections Manager)
Present from Grand Rapids Public Middle School. 10 high achieving 6th, 7th and 8th grade students form the after school game lyceum class.

Action Items are bold-Italicized

Gameplay

The Middle schoolers were able to hack the game by finding objects until the price added up to the target total.
All of the middle schoolers and the museum staff teams were able to complete the game and get the correct amount, but only with some help finding the price tags.
The KCAD students had a hard time because they were expecting to see all custom price tags like the the first test. But many were integrated. This was a failure on Bill's part ... to inform them of the change.
The museum staff thought that allowing different amounts of times for different types of players offers the ability to make the gameplay work for a wide range of users. In the gameplay rules, a note about flexible timing should be added.
Although players spent more time looking around in the shops, they were very focused on finding the prices in lieu of everything else.
The museum staff enjoyed the historical character animations and their history the most.
The middle school students enjoyed solving the riddles the most.
The middle school students did not feel that it was a role-playing game so much as an adventure/puzzle game. They rated it from 5-8 (out of 10) on the "fun" scale.
Generally: each activity; tallying, navigating and receiving/deciphering clues was performed by the group and not the individual holding the worksheet or tablet.

Map and navigation

!!!! - The game overview should clearly differentiate between the fictional and historical characters
!!!! - Many players had difficulty finding the Street Trolly. Add the horse to the map.
!!!! - Players need more landmarks on the map. That seems to be the primary method of orienteering.

Tallier Sheet

No issues with the tallier sheet functionality
√ - The story of Harrison Smith shed him in a poor light compared with the others. He has been changed to a blacksmith that came north to look for work as a in a livery with hopes of earning better wages.
!!!! - Moving forward: ensure there is a fairly equal amount of money to spend for each role-play character. This will help to avoid stigmatization.

Price Tags

Integrated pricing proved to be too difficult to find. Large obvious price tags and information proved too easy to find. Several students suggested that we create more discreet, custom price tags that are not as obvious and contain a subtle visual clue that they are part of the game.
The Museum educators thought that the items should be easy to find. Players will be able to challenge themselves by completing as many of the four scenarios as possible. In other words, the difficulty factor is created through volume of game play more than difficulty. This will also open it up to a wider age range of players.
Many more price tags will need to be added to the displays whichever direction we go forward with.
Including a visual example of the clue on the navigator's sheet would help them to be found.

!!!! - To avoid price tags altogether, we could change the gameplay a bit

This idea eliminates the problems associated with making the price tags close to the windows and easy to find as well as disturbing the exhibits with unnatural objects. It will also allow items further within the store to be added to the scavenger hunt list, leading to more engagement between the space and the player. The math required to win the game and the price references as they relate to inflation also does not change.

The goal remains to spend the exact amount of $ you start with.
On the Tallier sheet: the prices will be listed next to the objects. A checkbox will be included next to each item.
by assessing their role play story and the three clues they receive from their historical figures, the players will need to find 3 items, from the 8 on the list, that can actually be found in a location, and add up to the exact amount of money they start with.
4 of the items listed will be actually in the locations and 4 of them will be 'fake' listings. This means that they will have to find the 3 actual items (out of the 4) to make sure they are not choosing a fake.
Some combinations that include the fake items will also add up to the target amount. That will keep the players form hacking the game by simply working out the math on the tallier sheet.

Targets

√ - The paper appeared to be slightly lighter in color compared with the most of the other posters. Darken slightly.
√ - All players felt that they blended well with the current posters otherwise.
√ - Bill feels that they have more empty space around the perimeter than most of the other posters. Reduce the size of the edge margins.
!!!! - Place all targets within existing poster locations.

AR Animations

√ - They were universally well received. The 4 second pause between loops seemed to be just right. The middle schoolers thought they were a bit creepy... in a compelling and interesting way.
√ - The subtitles worked perfectly and in the noisy environment, were instrumental in the playability of the game.
√ - Subtitles: some spelling errors and tight fits were noticed: Check and correct.
√ - (app revised to uncache the animations) - Periodically the app stopped reading the targets. Closing and re-opening fixed it. Hang targets in hallway and try to break the app while taking notes of which devices break and when.
√ - (a different video embed method is now being used)The lip sync is slightly off. Determine the root cause (3D softsware? Aftereffects? App?
√ - The animations glitched during the first second. Add a 2 second pause at the beginning to see if that allows some buffering to happen. Revise end pause to 2 seconds (for a total of 4 seconds of pause between loops.)
√ - Some of the animators thought a special effect at the beginning of the animations might make them feel more magical. Add a puff of smoke effect to the animations.

Target and AR Animation Interaction

!!!! - Review with the team - The "Harry Potter" effect may be more effective if the bust pose on the target matches the first frame of the animations. Revise the the target busts.
√ - Bill thought the Color of the animation always mismatching the paper target was an issue, though not many others mentioned it. Add a black frame on the target and have the animation set perfectly into it. This may make the mismatch seem purposeful.
√ - The background value is darker than the paper. Lighten sightly using the curve shown below on the overlay layer.

Game Extension Ideas Expressed

Adding a start screen and a way, digitally, for players to find out if they chose the correct items and receive some kind of affirmation if they did. This would make it feel more like an app.
Creating pre-game activities such as:
Creating post-game activities such as: