Presentation Day | 14/11/2016

The final step: presenting our project. After 6 or so weeks we presented our work for critical feedback by setting up a poster, a secondary monitor with a build of the game and, of course, the helmet itself, to be played with by our colleagues.

First-time walkthrough of the inputs on the helmet.

A second monitor was placed in front of the player so
that they stand up straight and can see the game better.

Feeling around for the correct inputs.

Final progress on the helmet develoment

                     

               First adding a layer of Acrylic-One           Then pouring acetone all over the styrofoam

                      to the styrofoam helmet                       to melt it away from the newly formed shell

Fixing the remainder of the shell

and finished the shape

Adding a foundation layer of paint

    

And finished it off with a touch of bronze!

Playtesting

The 7th of November we did our first official playtest of our game Under Pressure.
We got a lot of feedback and initial very good feedback. The feedback wasn't so much about the gameplay, more about  small UI confusions and control confusion.

The first UI feedback and the one that was stressed the most,was that it was hard to locate which button/knob/slider/switch to interact with when being shown on the in-game model of the helmet. The helmet was not mirrored in the game, so the player thought it was on the other side. This was resolved quite quickly and the test-players after the adjustment did not mention anything about it.

When the air pressure got too high the screen started cracking. This got problematic for the reason that the crack effect distorted the in-game model of the helmet, so it made it really hard for the player to see what to interact with. We took  this into hand and moved the model more to the center of the screen. We also got some cracking effect over the Air Pressure  UI, but the tester said it was alright. A tester mentioned that the knob silhouette was unclear. He did not really understand it what it was suppose to replicate. 

We got a lot of feedback on our controller, especially the potentiometers and sliders. We had set it to that you need achieve a not visible(for the player) value when sliding the slider or turning the potentiometer. This was really unclear for the player of course. We adjusted it so only had to interact with the slider or potentiometer to make it recognize in-game. A tester mentioned that the element of achieving a certain value with the sliders or potentiometers can be implemented in "Hard Mode".

The testers felt that it was hard to be precise with the potentiometer as well when adjusting the air pressure. The last feedback we got on the controller was that it was hard to find some of the knobs. We should have more spacing between the different controls, so the player can more easily differentiate the controls.

So positive feedback we got was that the sound was great. It made you feel really immersed in the game. The speaker attached to to the helmet creating the echoing inside made it feel that you actually was wearing an old diving helmet. The stress factor was increased when you were start losing air inside your suit and the player started chipping for air. It felt your were short on breath as well.     

Combining Helmet and Electronics

For the playtesting sessions next week we need to have two things:

• A function helmet with button placements.
• A working game in unity.

We'll be using the papier-maché helmet and attaching the components through mounting wire and duct tape. It's strong enough for the player to flip switches and turn potentiometers, but the exposed wires need to be masked off.

For the final product we'll be using a sculpting compound (clay, playdough, some other method) to permanently attach the components to the helmer and then we will hide the wires under a thin surface layer to allow the player to touch the helmet without risking accidentally breaking something.

Soldering time

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Under Pressure - One Pager