Report on the installation for Digital Dystopias Festival at Middleton Hall

We were exceptionally lucky to have a test-run of the installation in a real scenario at the Digital Dystopias Festival at University of Hull. This ran from Friday (10/02/17) to Tuesday (14/02/17), and members of the public were able to play the game and give feedback on it.

Based on the feedback, I am thinking that the project is mostly successful, as people had fun playing it, gave some great suggestions to further the project, and also asked me very encouraging questions about the theme of it.

Here is a selection of the questions I was asked:
"What ship is that?"
"Why is this one called the Dianna?"
"Is this to do with Bowhead in the Maritime Museum?"
"Why did they hunt the whales?"
"Where did they hunt these whales?"
"What type of whale would they be hunting?"

The project seemed to be a hit with children around the age of 10, as they were repeat players of the game, even coming back to play it in between the events at the festival. They were also very observant, spotting a bug with a boat spawning before the game had started. They were also the majority of people who completed the game.

I was lucky to have a lot of Computer Science students at the event (due to the festival being centred on technology), and they seemed to all be very positive about what we had created, and also surprised that the project was from the Music department. Largely they were mostly interested in the Leap Motion itself, and asked a lot of questions about the device, and what it could be used for. This would suggest that the Leap is a nice talking point to entice visitors at the museum to get involved.

I found that asides from younger children, there was a definite spike in slightly older adults playing the game. This was great, and I'm not sure that would have been as much the case if we had presented a complicated game played with a mouse and keyboard. One major issue was that this group didn't always understand how to use the technology based on the message on the screen, and very few people read the explanation sheet accompanying the game. This means that the tutorial needs work, as I won't be (and should not need to be) there all week to explain the gameplay at the maritime museum.

The enclosure was not entirely up to scratch for the exhibition, having failed a theft test. Rob also wasn't happy with the aesthetic of melted plastic, so we are planning to fit a veneer over the top to address both issues. This should help by creating a more snug fit, whilst covering my blunders with the soldering iron.


Current to do list:

• fix boat spawn before  the game starts

• fix bug where timer doesn't stop if whale dies

• speed up longboat movement?
• fix a bug where harpoons sometimes don't return to the boat

• reduce leap sensitivity

• have a passive (indirect) tutorial - Ash has suggested recording a very brief video in the Maritime Museum with the finished enclosure to make it extra clear how to play the game.

Adam Courtney ...And I feel...tired...

This is just a log of the final adjustments we make just in the last couple of hours.

• Nathan's soundscape is in, and I absolutely love it! It adds a lot of character to the game in my opinion- I'd listened to it on it's own, but with the game it adds a lot of polish. Also having Max run it independently means that it runs the duration rather than stopping and starting with Unity's reset. That will mean it sounds different for people when they play it each time.
• The tutorial now has a 30 second timer, where if the player hasn't come up for air to complete the tutorial, the game resets.
• Fixed a bug where the player's breath would go down if you stayed on the surface of the water after the tutorial.
• Ash and I will get cracking on the video material as soon as we can.

Adam Courtney- It's the end of the code as we know it...

I'm hoping this is nearly the final version of the game, as time would dictate that is the case.

Improvements:

• Made the glowing harpoon effect more subtle, they also now don't glow after hitting the whale
• UI is coloured, and goes red more often. Font also changes size for emphasis when breath is low, and if player gets hit.
• Sound levels in Unity have been lowered a lot (they were drowning out the Max patch).
• Made and then fixed bug where one the Swan ship would appear without a texture on the mini-camera.
• More directions from the top text.
• Moved the camera for the big ships, so that the little boats are visible to warn the player.
• Added a warning to the screen when a new ship is spawning.
• Made whale able to move more around the screen.
• Chain from harpoons now looks more like a chain
• Harpoons now have a slight swinging effect when they miss the player (hopefully slightly more realistic).
• Fixed bug where harpoons would return to ship rotated 90 degrees sideways.
• Made guns focus on the harpoons once fired.
• Fixed bug where demo video would have started if the game ended (instead of after resetting).

Remaining before installation:

• Add Nathan's soundscape to the max patch
• Add a timer so that if a player leaves during the tutorial the game returns to the start screen.
• Add the tutorial videos to the project.

Adam Courtney- Home stretch! :)

Progress on the game has slowed slightly in favour of creating an enclosure for the Leap Motion which is hopefully durable enough to last a week at the museum without any trouble.

I've opted for a plastic Hammond box (£6 in Maplin) as the primary casing. It needed modifying to hold the Leap Motion, so I did some research on how to cut out the shape for it to sit in.

The method I saw online was the hot knife technique, which involves using a knife edge as a soldering iron tip, and cutting the plastic while the knife tip is heated up. I was unable to procure the knife-edge tip from the shops I tried in Hull, so opted for a modified approach, screwing a Stanley blade onto the side of the soldering iron.

It was a bit of a trial and error process, as the blade was much hotter at the back than the front, leading to me having to cut backwards. However, given it is my first attempt, I was happy with the results. There are a few parts on the case which have been scuffed, which was unfortunate, but the case serves the purpose. The cable can't be pulled out, as the end is encased in the box, and the Leap Motion is sat flush with the top of the case. It should be possible to use cable ties and a few other simple methods to lock it down tomorrow. Whilst it's not a beautiful thing, it works and I'm pleasantly surprised at the result.

Changes in this build:

Tutorial code is implemented! I was able to do it with a modular approach, so that there is minimal impact on existing code, and the script can be bypassed hopefully if needed.

Tonight, I am:

Adding in the video clips to replace the blank squares I've been working with.

fixing an issue where the second camera doesn't disappear once the boat is well and truly on-screen - DONE!

The text and formatting needs improving, as the videos are covering them.

After this is done, the project should be...dare I say it somewhere near finished! I may stay and play test to ensure it's bug-free this time around, and also see if any other graphical improvements can be made.

I also plan to replace a graphically intense steam spray with a graphic, just to make life easier for the computer.