From my play testing feedback I realized that the interface and controls needed some grounding, a way to introduce the player into the world smoothly. To help resolve this issue I developed an introduction which helps the players understand and use the controls more fluidly, giving them the proper introduction to the mechanics of the world. To begin with I moved towards a fully leap controlled menu interface, for example to start the game you must place both hands over the detector, and then you start the interactions and discover the mechanics one by one. To start your hand movements control the movement on forward/backward axis, then rotation and finally interactions with the sound planets. Really fluidly building up your capabilities and confidence within the space and with the interface.
I think that using just simple elements of the wider control interactions to signal end of a scene or move to the next step is a really engaging way to for the player to learn the game. Instead of awkwardly using a mouse and button click, which would disrupt the continuity of the game, they use moves and controls from the wider game to interface the menu. For example, using Hands in and hands out as a signifier of begin and end, we are taking one of the necessary interactions of the leap motion, the desire to use it and folding that over into a trigger for the game.
nother area I have been developing is the set of samples that create the soundscape, I have been building it into a group of 23 at the moment. Each element referencing their own influence on this played experience, speculative science fiction, space and sensing the unknown. The speculative science fiction represented by self-composed synth movements and abstract mechanical drum loops. Space and sensing the unknown are represented by recordings of space and sonification of scientific data. So far these elements have made a really good compilation, the major flaws being held within unity’s audio player where it is difficult to loop samples in-sync, to resolve this I have decided to use more ambient sounds, so that if their or rhythm clashes it will be less noticeable. For the time being I will be just dealing with this issue as it will be resolvable when I move the sound element to max as planned.
George Simms 