110623 Go/No Go/Delay Decision, etc.

Hi team,

Allen, Dan, David, Melissa, Sean, Trisha, & Wei-Hwa met.

STATUS REPORT

In preparation for our discussion of whether we can hit the 9/17 target date we reviewed our progress in each of the functional areas:

Puzzles--We can have enough puzzles ready for the playtest in August...but we cannot achieve the quality and quantity we aspire to with that little time

Sets--We're waiting on input from Shoresh about this

Locations--Great and terrible: we have one key location locked down (the Highlands Rec Center), but have no strong leads on the second key location (currently slated for the science fair + principal's office + locker hallway)

Props--we're totally stuck in the water on this one, in particular for Catherine's and Wesley's high school science fair exhibits. Those two props (as currently envisioned) require gadgeteer skills that are not in the current group (to the best of our knowledge). So we'll have to recruit someone with those skills (no success so far)...or think of an alternative that we can implement with the current team. Such a person could also lend expertise to the time machine, but hopefully Shoresh can design something even without such a gadget genius. Acorn has volunteered to create the portable tachyon flux detector and Sean will be Acorn's key point of contact for that endeavor.

Costumes--Melissa and her minions have that well in hand and could meet the 9/17 deadline.

Videos--We have one person on board, but Allen is a little concerned about whether this person's work style will mesh well with the team's needs. There are two other candidates. So we could probably meet the August playtest deadline...except for the lack of a location for shooting the 1986 footage.

Web Site & Graphics--David and his team have this well in hand and can meet the 9/17 deadlines.

Application--Done

Actors--On board

GO/NO GO/DELAY

There was unanimous agreement to eliminate the no go option, i.e., proceed with our game one way or the other.

There was general agreement that we could get *something* ready for a 9/17 play date...but that it would be lacking a significant amount of the awesomeness that we all hoped for at the beginning.

Therefore there was unanimous agreement to push back the game date.

We eliminated an October date since just giving ourselves one more month probably wouldn't make the difference. We were concerned about November and December dates because the rains will start, the days will be extremely short, there will be a lot of proximity to the local rerunning the WHO game, and because of conflicts with the holiday season.

We tentatively chose the weekends of 3/17/12 and 3/27/12.

• Allen to poll the team on who is available for these weekends and the surrounding ones. (We want as many of us to be able to enjoy the actual runs...and we especially need the actors and core GC members.) [FYI: Erik has already contacted me and informed me that he's not available on the weekend of 3/17.]

• Erik to inform Highlands rec center that we're pushing back our rental date

LESSIONS FROM RECENT WORLD HENCHMEN ORGANIZATION GAME

Trisha and Wei-Hwa reported on relevant lessons learned from their recent participation in Seattle's World Henchmen Organization game

• They enjoyed the game

• The production values that we're planning for our game will exceed the standards set by WHO

• There were some video puzzles in WHO, but it was difficult for everyone on a team to enjoy them since the poor quality of typical computer speakers typically only allowed one person at a time to view a video. So we might want to encourage teams to bring amplified speakers to hook up to their laptops. At the very least we should mix our audio loud!

• We should be sure to clearly communicate to our participants an end time for our game to make it easier for out of town players to plan their return flights.

VIDEO (CALIBRATION PUZZLE)

We noted that we can proceed with the creation of the calibration puzzle because all it requires is green screen shooting--no specific location required (unlike the video from the script which is at a standstill till we get the high school location).

• Wei-Hwa will obtain high-quality video clips from the movies that our videographer can later use as a component of the puzzle.

WEB SITES

David showed two mockups of a proposed Trenchwood web site, combining the efforts of Rigel, David, and Ben. Many oohs and ahs were exclaimed. There was unanimous agreement that these designs will get our prospective players enthused at first sight.

• David to digest the feedback and then work with Rigel to create an alpha (password protected) version of the full Trenchwood site so that the whole team can see it and read the draft copy. Wei-Hwa to be added to the email discussion loop. Wei-Hwa will help with the hosting, etc.

We then discussed upgrading the www.doctorwhen.com site. At this point our focus for the site should shift from recruiting GC members to building anticipation for our game among potential players. We also agreed that although we don't want to announce a specific date, we are willing to point to "Spring, 2012."

• David to draft a graphical and text update of the site with input from Allen (text?), Wei-Hwa, Rigel, etc. as he sees fit.

LOCATION SCOUTING

Melissa expressed her deep doubts that we'll find *any* school that will let us use their facility in the middle of the night, as is required in Act II. She therefore recommended that we use the Highlands Rec Center for all the school locations because we can use that facility overnight and instead find another location for the laboratory.

Allen noted that we have at this point only gotten one refusal (for the San Mateo school system). So while Melissa's doubts are likely very well founded he requested that we get a few more "no"s before giving up on doing the school scenes at a school.

Melissa also confirmed that there will be new buildings complete at the Highlands Rec Center by March of next year. This will, at the very least, make it easier to locate the principal's office, journalism office, science fair, etc. all at one location. And maybe we can even find a way to put the laboratory there, too (which would be great because it would make the Act III trip to the past easier for the players to navigate).

PUZZLES

We reviewed the status of a few puzzles.

• Sean will coordinate a working session on the Jiffy Pop puzzle
• Allen shared a few ideas on how an activity/puzzle that involved two teams working together electronically (but only one team knowing that it was a team on the other side, not a computer) might work. We'll all let those ideas "ferment."

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As always, feel free to reply with any corrections, amplifications, etc.

Allen