Promo video
Setting up the installation to make a promo video.
Our assignment was to create an electrical installation that demanded physical movement of the user, which was to be placed in Gruva, Norway's largest space for student innovation.
We decided to make a game, nicknamed Plattman(from Plato and Packman), which several players would compete in who could keep their hand inside the philosophers open mouth the longest and avoid getting bit.
In this project, I was in charge of the code, writing the bulk of it myself. We programmed Arduino Uno's using C-code and Raspberry Pi's using Python. Working with the code, I also gained a lot of insight of the actual wiring, and therefore took responsibility of most of the wiring as well. From my Voks Opp-project(spring 2020) I had experience with game design and game design theory, so I was the "expert" on this while developing the concept.
I also took responsibility of the process, planning and delegation of tasks for parts of the project.
Process and methods:
We started with a extensive brainstorming over two workshops. After those, I created a Gantt chart that we used to set deadlines and plan the entirety of the process. However, we had to discard the chart as we hadn't completely complexity and challenges of our project. The Gantt chart is a nice tool, but it might require more previous knowledge of the subject in order to realistically estimate the time use.
I was told about a KANBAN-chart, which I started using for all my tasks. After introducing it to the group, a mix of KANBAN and a Focus matrix was our main tool of project planning for the remainder of the project. Having a unique position as both the coder and having insight into wiring and game design theory, this allowed us to effectively locate bottlenecks and delegate tasks.
To develop the game, we started with a Wizard of Oz user test, with very promising results. We gained insight into what made the game fun and interesting, and maybe even more important: what parts of the game that was unnecessary. We concluded that if we managed to build the installation, it would could be a success.
After the user test, we split our tasks into coding, building, 3D-printing and the mechanics. Our project had a huge bottleneck, which was that all parts needed to be in place before we could do more user testing. As mentioned in the Voks Opp-page, game development is dependent on continuous testing in order to make a great game, which we was unable to do without massive amounts of work being done.
Screenshot of Miro workshop and concept drawing
Gameplay
Project made with Sebastian Dahl, Vetle Haadem, Emma Nakken and Eline Thomasgaard.