Here is the link. http://https//www.dropbox.com/s/sa0ik3s2wzqp4on/Atomic%20Vacation%20Scene%201.key.zip?dl=0
A couple of questions remain that I will need to get feedback on---
1. How much pre-game instruction is necessary? How to present this-as a short summary of the setup and instructions? How does this change the experience?
I don't want to confuse user, but I gradually want the user to get the story that this is a message from the future and something apocalyptic has happened on Earth. (The GIF of the A-bomb at the beginning is pretty clear foreshadowing??) Also, the machine-human conundrum--eventually, the user will figure out she is a robot, but until then, she seems like a strange and oddly mature child.
Right now, in the beginning of the story, the user gets this information:
a little girl/machine voice telling/"accusing" the user of "dwelling like tourists" on the Earth. A description of the Turing test taken from Turing's actual paper and if the user chooses to play, thirty minutes to convince the girl of her/his identity. I do have an instruction book in the scene, but it needs to be "in character" or it will break immersion.
2. I am time-limiting the interaction to thirty minutes, then the player moves to the next level.
Cyril is not so sure about this. But, in all my storytelling, I present an excess of information and user choice decides the kind of story that they get--no one, except the very neurotic, would access the entirety of the story. In my storyboard, only the beginning and end are sequenced for the user, the rest of the time it is up to the user to explore the room as she wishes.
3. User is mostly free to access data in the room as she wants. Is this too easy? Does there need to be a challenge other than processing at times very difficult information?
This is not really a puzzle game until the next level where the word/thought puzzles start. I realize that in Don't Touch Anything, the puzzles are so hard, and one is so intent on finding keys and codes that the story is utterly lost (if there is one?). Atomic Vacation is really about story.
4. How can I connect the "mind map" of the online experience to this and yet make both online and VR useable and satisfying on their own? Or do I connect them so that in order to "win" the game the user must actually access both??I am thinking that allowing users to photograph "vacation snapshots" while in the game would be one way. These could then be accessed later or archived with sign in information. How have people seen photo function used in VR? You can use it in Land's End, but I'm not sure why anyone would do this. However, you might here because this would allow you to "map" onto the mind map, so that eventually, you can orient yourself in the last landscape and find the rainbow teardrops in the online version since these are buried in even more information.
5. Should this be more self reflexively interactive? I don't want to confuse the user with too many goals. The goal of the first scene is basically to use the time to get the story. I think maybe I have to be more proactive in getting user to think about what it means to be human. One idea, is to have timed questions appear in front of the user--in the manner of old quiz shows with a big question mark and the "beat the clock" clock, spinning, and cheesy/weird game show music soundtrack that I'd manipulate. These questions might be. If the world, ended tomorrow, what image would you preserve for the future? I could give three choices. (all kind of equally absurd in the face of apocalypse).
Goals: next two weeks
1) I will record Shizuku voiceovers using text edit.
2) I will finalize the scripts and put out the call for Japanese-American actresses on Craig's list so we can start video taping and have these ready by end of August.
3) I will decide on scheme for adding information to landscape for online mind map. Right now, I like Cesium because it is open source and Javascript. I can also avoid apps (Google Earth) which although sexy limit user access and have limited shelf life without constant revision.
4) Discuss goal of limited demo for Launchpad with Cyril. If we agree on 3d scanning. I will start to work on test objects for this.
