Vignette 1 - September-October - Spark Build

See this vignette in the story shape.

First Vignette

Item: Rocks

Fiction

I'm going to go in this spiritualists in the archive direction.

• Holy books (referenced not fabricated)
• Programmer edits start
• Historian Edits Start
• mining paperwork and later geologists.
• Commentary from spiritualist group who are fighting about this object
• Opportunity to get nerdy about materiality

Narrative Mechanics:

• researchers criticizing the values/similar focus (the annals) of previous (thinking they missed important info, Athenian murders), affectionate teasing (shriek an afterward)
• researchers begin talking to each other through time
• researchers begin talking to you, ask you to find another entry
• researchers unlock extra access for you (edit access? metadata access)
• require cross referencing between database, digital file (spreadsheet ) and physical artifact tag

Exhibition Equipment

• Power bar
• Laptop
• prints of 'onboarding booklet'
• Monitor - dated looking - this is not narratively necessary, but by having the equipment look significantly different than other installations it should communicate that the computer is part of the experience not just containing it.
  
  
  (I think this is funny because I selected it specifically so that it would look out of place in this environm,ent.)
• Desk (hopefully with wheels - probably borrow from school for now)
• Keyboard (shitty one? would still like mechanical)
• Optical mouse that is comfy to use for normies
• Little shelves or the cabniet
• Boxes (Get from Netplaza)
• line box lid with tissue for rocks
• Box to fit rock? Just lid for now
• Create tags/box labels for artifacts so far

Conceptual Mechanics:

(First sprint so it's a little of everything)

• start of bleed - player adds information about themselves to registration. - could only get choosing a user name and having it attached to migration in the log.
• metalepsis - physical artifact and paperwork are available and digitized
• physicality - see above
• fragmentary data - conversation unfolds nonlinearly, middle peices missing and require unlocking

Bug Fixes and technical Features

• Fix middle click issue
• strip out typescript
• fix program loses focus bug
• add unknown user researcher
• allow enter to send registration form
• Add list of recently updated entries
• make new subentries tagged with UNREAD
• unread parent entry if unread subenty
• change style of pure metadata vs researcher notes vs related entries
• make other database! electron builder? no go for now, will work with a spreadsheet file for now.
• Add Register User Page (editable) TNF
• hexhash import also changes templates or edit access (tfn V3)
• map key/value system to hexhash so they're more readable to me, I can name them after story choke-points
• instead of "available on start" assign "starter hexhash" that can be used for different text builds.
• build a spreadsheet for the hexhashes
  • how to direct player to this file and know to use spreadsheet?
    • early draft onboarding manual
• build some corrupted spreadsheets for the file folder
• layout the data download folder to be legible - exe + spreadsheets and other loose files.
  • packer for exe so extra files are hidden. What is software called?
• keystroke "save as default database" in admin mode
  • probably need to fix save as default save, there was an issue I don't remember I think it's fixed - needs testing to strip on build
• search is broken ;_____;
• Updating metadata - DublinCore
  
• Make your tags!

WIP Images

Data Snowman

Admin toggle and window resize are now hidden in context menu. We also have logs! They're pretty janky.

I can now spit out a CSV file of hexhashes for builds.

questions for playtesters

• Could you differentiate between items that were completely missing vs that you needed to find?
• How did you feel about the technology the game was presented on?

Exhibition Reflection

I thought it went well! I spent a lot of time before Spark trying to implement features that didn't work and I had to bail on, namely having media save to the hard drive instead of getting loaded into binary where they slowly corrupted, getting the registration page working, and creation, and second window to hold the terminal. Failing to get these big features working meant getting the actual story in was kind of rushed, but I'm proud of it in a first draft way, and people found it pretty spooky. I think Golunouches soundtrack helped. The onboarding document and the writing outline came together really quickly the night before - I really struggled trying to get it printed though.

Some protos from Spark Set Up.

I needed help with set up and tear down, desks on wheels was essential. I thought the practical lighting turned out really well.

I'm unhappy with the documentation I got, I was very distracted (and energized) wanting to debrief all my playtesters and forgot about the camera - I think I need someone else to help document next time.

Next time I want to have the room be fully private, with either me outside or if inside, in character somehow. Have people waiting outside to try.

I was very lucky to have other professors visit, including Lillian Allen who is working with me for my independent study, and Alex Borkowski who teaches my Technology of Writing course I'm auditing, and Sarah Diamond - they all had great references for me to follow up on.

Playtesting takeaways

• People found the vintage tech endearing, believable, and not distracting (I personally did not like broken middle mouse button break though)
• most people actually really liked copy pasting from the spread sheet? Reports it's meditative and creates a flow of pasting and reading.
• however knowing you need to find the spreadsheet is unclear,
• people liked the language in the on parsing manual but I observed some players struggled with reading it - I think it's too dense.
• needs a registration page as login implies they should already have an account
• people were really engaged with the log in and their username though
• needs clarity on what articles are newly imported - signifier that the state is updated. React processes so quickly updates can feel invisible.
• surprisingly high independent completion rate, especially towards the end of the day when people could sit with it for longer and the school was quieter
• good feedback on the writing though I should have asked more questions about how they understood the narrative - but that's maybe REB territory?
• Excellent references for artists and projects from visiting professors
• some older people seem intimidated by the software
• almost all people were reluctant to touch the artifacts, and there aren't yet any mechanics that force them to.
• multiple people, some unprompted, stated they felt that they got lost in another world and forgot they were at an art show. Indication that the flow achieved from copy/pasting actually helps with this. (Wish I had REB!!! I have not connected flow state to immersion. Lots of games people argue that concentration flow and narrative immersion are incompatible but several people mentioned this.)
• didnt count playtesters, but probably 20-30!! 2/3rds of my class plus professors, IAMD students, friends of friends.
• ideas for grounding the "language of longing (for a body)" to flow thematically through geology, biology, technology, spirituality (find a word for this maybe that rhymes ha ha.)
• lots of great convos about materiality and archive science
• would want a private, quiet room where participants can be alone in future exhibits, but surprisingly high focus from playtesters (admittedly more from people I know, but many strangers reported being very engaged and referenced written content in conversation)
• signaling is BAD. 2-3 taught themselves systems entirely through the manual, but many others needed further instructions and seemed overwhelmed when they couldn't figure out what to do.
• starting with so many empty entries confused people (eventually there should be more storylines available at the beginning so hopefully this lessens?)
• the order in which hashes are imported might need more care - the typewriter entry lands at the top rather than what the players intended to migrate. I like this though, it can be used intentionally to direct people to paths that aren't on their current line.
• nobody write anything down - they will need to be forced I think.
• allow players to sort and filter the database by author and date so they can see a characters journey in sequence? This would be helpful for me for writing!!! But also something that can be granted to players later in the game when they've already started forming narrative from fragments? I worry allowing this cements the story too much in my intended perspective and dissuades people from imagining their own timelines. Might compromise fragmentation theory
• Someone suggested putting the volunteer catalog on the keyboard and that really helpful