This is a tough week for the group, as our Building Virtual Worlds’ class has us all split into three other groups to deliver three brand-new projects just a week before our Visual Story assignment, i.e. Managotchi, is due.

And so while there is steady progress being made towards crafting our vision of Managotchi, most of our spare time outside class has had to shift towards our respective BVW projects, to complete them in just 18 days.

Since Jeff and Ryan are in the same BVW group, they steadily flesh out a spreadsheet that includes an items list and a food and drink list, as well as their corresponding values. It’s the values that will give our game value (as cheesy as that sounds…)

The rest of the group meets online on Skype at 9 p.m. on Tuesday and 10 p.m. Thursday to help sort out what we’d like Managotchi, the game, to consist of.

We decide that much like Tamagotchi, we want the user/parent to be challenged to keep Managotchi alive, which should involve a limited number of choices of a limited amount of items, each properly weighted against some sort of HUD meters.

We want these meters to include health, his starvation (which we term “fullness” after much discussion), his level of intelligence and his relative overall happiness. What could be great for Managotchi’s happiness (playing video games) may not be great for his intellect, and vice-versa (reading schoolbooks).

We also determine we want Managotchi to have a minimalist white background, and so Ryan and Nick talk to Mark at GNWC to see what the school may have on hand.

Using the school’s green screen in the Hangar would work, but would involve a lot of work in Photoshop, so we as around to see if there’s an easier way.

We discover that a group of C2s working with Tom Wujec has just purchased a white roll to create a seamless background for a video. We also hear that since that video shoot is complete, Wujec has donated the roll to GNWC, which is great news.

We talk to Brian Ford, a member of that group, who checks and clears it for our use. Huge milestone! The only trouble is tracking down some sort of rail to hold it up. Ryan and Nick look more into acquiring one of these so we can begin shooting right away.

At the same time, we also look into where we can actually set up our shoot, without having to worry about intrusion. Possible locations include the boardroom upstairs (by the staff offices), or the Blue Room, near the Sound Lab, which would also be quiet.

We also begin making a list of costumes and items we may have to purchase for Jordan in order to show progression and transformation, and make a general plan to head to a thrift store to purchase them next week.

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