Underwater Robot Constructor

Early Prototypes

I began this as my third project in MSU's MI 839: Game Design Studio I. The first prototype just played with ROV physics; it was a proof-of-concept that I could position thrusters around something and pilot it using the ROV-like controls I intended, and the ROV moved around in open space over a Unity terrain. This established the foundation of the ROV coding and confirmed this as what I wanted to do for my Master's project.

Between semesters and in MI 846: Game Design Studio II, I continued to refine the piloting experience, creating the first challenges and experimenting with different assets to get the look and feel that I wanted. The images on the right represent the game at this stage of development, where the ROV is still just a block with thrusters and floats attached and the levels included things to explore or manipulate.

Designing the Build Lab

As I worked on the project through the summer of 2022, I focused on the Build Lab where players would create their ROVs. I began the design with a flat prototype in Google Slides, composing a rough layout of screens and the overall build process. Using online color palette helpers I created a rough color scheme of blues and yellow, then I consulted my graphic designer friend Anette Nam who suggested some refinements and an additional highlight color of teal or orange to pull it together.

As I got into the details of how the build would work, however, I needed to sketch out ideas and iterate more quickly, so I made a quick template, printed out a number of copies, and begin to draw and take notes. After a few false starts I ended up with a fairly cohesive paper prototype of the Build Lab where users would click color-coded nodes to progress through creating an ROV. Since I needed three colors of nodes, I adopted both of Anette's suggested highlight colors to mean different things.

With these rough sketches in hand, I then fleshed out my Google Slides prototype, then I implemented the Build Lab in Unity through the summer of 2022.

User Testing

Underwater Robot Constructor(ROV Simulator) was an Official Selection at the 2022 Meaningful Play conference, so I was able to show the then-current version of ROV Simulator to a variety of game students and professionals in an informal way. The game showed very well with some individuals choosing to continue using it for a half hour or more, rebuilding their ROVs and tinkering with possibilities. Several of the feedback points were already on the project roadmap, including allowing users to adjust pieces in-place rather than having to undo or delete and re-add them, while the users also located a few bugs and pointed out additional possibilities.

I only had time to implement some of the suggestions before I did a more formal round of review in MSU's MI 841: Understanding Users. For this class I only tested with adults, but I tried to get at the target audience's needs by testing with an ROV team coach, a robotics coach who was not familiar with ROV competitions, and a college-aged robotics team alumnus also not familiar with ROV competitions. They liked many aspects of the game and provided a mixture of expected and new feedback which I documented for the class project. My next step is to implement this feedback while continuing to make progress on the project roadmap.