Prototyping Phase - 8ude/TechProduction_Spring2019_FemaleRoleModelProject GitHub Wiki

We have 3 Prototypes to make:

Prototype 1: Mirror prototype - as the user focuses their attention, the model in the mirror changes from a less desirable form to a more desirable one.

Prototype 2: Jewelry-building prototype - the user creates a piece of jewelry based on pieces that are more traditionally “masculine” or “feminine.”

Prototype 3: The player chooses their gender, and attempts to answer a series of questions - the game pushes back against them based on gender stereotypes that we’ve heard (for example, if they’re a male and try to choose to be more sensitive, the game tells them to “man up”)

Here’s some ideas of what your sub-team might need to accomplish during prototyping:

VISUAL:

Come up with some sketches and mood boards for each of the prototypes. Work with the Narrative/Design team to create a vision for the game that tells a story.

Make some 1st pass 3D models and establish the pipeline for getting models into Unity.

Think of ways that we could visually display all 16 channels of information. Strategies to think about - live graphs, numerical information (which could look more high-tech); animated geometries (look at the work of Cabbibo and Kejiro Takahashi).

AUDIO:

There’s a long history of ambient/meditative music. Search for some of these. Which are making sense to you? Some people to search for - Pharaoh Sanders, A Love Supreme (John Coltrane Album), Terry Riley (specifically In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air), Brian Eno - Music For Airports, Pauline Oliveros/Deep Listening Band - Deep Listening. Put together a playlist for musical inspiration.

Come up with some different “sonic brain mappings” for the audio to suit the prototypes. Make a short example track. For example - you might have 4 synthesizers (one for each channel). Different brain waves control the pitch, volume, timbre and panning. How is this going to sound?

Separate your example sound into different stems, and put it into Unity (using Fabric). Test different ways of connecting with the BCI.

NARRATIVE/GAME FLOW/DESIGN:

Each of the 3 prototypes need a clear beginning, middle, and end. What is going to happen to bring the user into the experience? What would the user flow look like for this? What types of role models do you think we should include?

What kinds of stories can we include in each of these 3 prototypes? Do we want to convey them primarily through audio, visuals, or text?

Identify the core interaction (also known as the "game loop"). For each of the prototypes, work with the code/technical team to create test-able versions of the core gameplay.

CODE/TECHNICAL:

Working with the BCI is going to take a lot of trial-and-error experimentation, and a lot of data massaging. Design an experiment to tell if we can reliably get a certain kind of input command from the BCI device. Which 4 input commands are going to be the most important, if we want to make some interesting interactions?

Develop basic flowchart for each of the 3 prototypes. Work with the Narrative/Design team to make these into Unity scenes.

Also, if you’re up for it, you can dig into some of our hardware interface issues. We have two potential hardware options. The Emotiv Epoc has more potential as a controller, and it supposedly has a Unity plugin, but I have had issues compiling it. It also has an Asset Store plugin from a 3rd party that you could test. The BrainBit headband, on the other hand, requires use of OSC, which requires a reliable network connection outside of university firewalls.