Development

Phase 1: Organization

Team SARGE (Space Augmented Reality Game of Exploration) has been created! Check us out on the about us page. To begin, we have done of variety of things. To properly work as team, we've written up a team contract outlining the governing principles behind our design process as well as understood each other's skillsets and schedules. We began a Slack discussion message board, a Google Doc to act as a collaborative brainstorm, and have had numerous discussions on how to proceed, including the formulation of our name.

More thorough documentation of this process can be found on our design blog on post #1, which you can go to and read

Here

Phase 2:Conceptualization

SARGE (Space Augmented Reality Game Exploration) - an interactive game about exploration, survival, and experimentation.

Overall Purpose: to educate players on the harsh realities of climate change.

Mobile multiplayer augmented reality game, incorporates real world location, data, and augmented reality, with a sci-fi inspired narrative

Purpose & Themes

You are given a mission by the Sergeant (SARGE) to gather enough space survival resources in a certain amount of time, in order to escape a dying Earth due to extreme climate change.

QR codes scattered around Pacific Science Center, represent resources like basic tools, medical kits, food, and spaceship parts

High level of interactivity with the player’s physical environment and virtual world

Inspirations &

Research

Games which we have found inspiration from are:
- Pokemon GO (Augmented Reality)
- No Man's Sky (Space Exploration and Survival)
- Classic Scavenger Hunting
  - (Like Hunting Easter Eggs -> Great Fun)

Research we have committed ourselves to:
- Understanding and using the Augment mobile app
- The usage of open-source 3d models, and possibly creating our own 3d models

The Game & Game Mechanics

Intro Narrative: The air on Earth is poisoned due to environmental ignorance and
- Climate change - > Provision of education about climate change
- You must scavenge for resources to survive,
  - and blast off into space!

Resources are signified by QR codes in different locations around Pac Sci, which players take a picture of.

Plays in multiplayer with players in small groups, accompanied by a moderator (one of us)
- Each small group gets an iPad equipped with Augment

"Homebase" will be the table where we will be set up. Here, players formulate teams, get their iPads, receive clues as to where resources are, as well as refill their oxygen levels (time limit)

Materials needed are things like food, water, resources, batteries, etc.
- Accompanied by 3D models shown with Augment

Must find space ship parts to build ship so player can blast off into space
- Accompanied by 3D models shown with Augment

Once game has started, players are on a time limit because they only have so much oxygen, they must come back to homebase every so often to refill their oxygen and time.

Multiple endings based on evaluation of gathered supplies
- Not survive, survive [on Earth], survive and go to space.

Concept Map(click to enlarge)

For the full documentation regarding our Phase 2 of the Development of SARGE, please refer to the blog post, found

Here

The Game & Game Mechanics

Phase 3: Preparation

Now that we have organized ourselves and conceptualized our game, it's time to start implementing and working on the game. To do this we first need to figure out what we need to work on! Here's are our preparations:

Finalize list of Supplies for scavenging
- Finalize locations of each supply
- Create Custom Trackers for each
- Attach Educational Facts to Trackers
Gather "set-up"
- Homebase table
  - Scoreboard
- Three tablets, likely iPads
  - Equip iPads with Augment/SARGE
- Candy rewards
Information Pamphlet Print-outs
- Map

To-Do Checklist

3D models:
- Gather/Create 3D models according to supply list
- Connect models to SARGE QR codes
  - Print SARGE QR codes
- Educational Facts
Narrative Map
- Supply evaluations for different endings
Create Tri-Fold board for the table
Finish the website
Final Documentation

Phase 4: Implementation

Finally, to implement our game we have gone through the processes above on the checklist. Here is the documentation for this section of our design process:

The Supplies

A large hurdle of ours which we are overcoming is gathering open-source models that can properly connect with the Augment app.
- Doing this, we have an account acting as a model database on the Augment website. We use this account to upload models, and connect them to custom trackers that we make.
- A challenge is that among the models we gather at different open-source websites, only certain file-types work, and among those file-types often the textures don't properly upload.

To get iPads we are borrowing them from the UWB IT desk.
We are then setting up each iPad by downloading the Augment iOS app

The Set-Up

The Tech

We will have a table as Homebase, including:
- Tri-fold Information Board
- Information Pamphlets
We will hide each Supply in locations around Pac Sci

The Story

In order for any game to have overarching themes or narrative context, it must have a story. To provide this narrative to our players we have written four paragraphs which will narrate to the players at certain points. The four are:
- Intro Narrative: Welcome Survivor!
  - Ending 1: Un-Survival
- Ending 2: Survival on Earth
- Ending 3: Blast-off to Space
In addition to the story, we must provide incentive for the players to play the game and play it well. To do this we'll reward the players with candy, based on their end result. Ending 1 players will receive 2 pieces, Ending 2 players will receive 4, and Ending 3 players will receive 6 pieces each.

Phase 5: Finalization & Reflection

(Really Phase 4 for Class)

To see our final write-up and reflection for our game, which goes in-depth into how the game went as well as our reflections concerning this and the process, refer to our blog post by clicking:

Here

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5