100610 Project Management--Planning Session 2

We met again last Thursday. The primary goal was to figure out what more we need to do to inspire us to start creating at least some of the puzzles and activities.

Along the way Dwight served as a guinea pig on our first attempt to use Skype for video conference participation.

PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE GAME

First, we invited Acorn to add in his personal goals for the game. He really wants the game to include a paradox or two, i.e., something that looks to the players like it just can't happen...but by the end of the game it seems completely inevitable in retrospect.

TASK LIST

Next we quickly reviewed the long list of proposed tasks [see wiki]. We noted that costumes, lighting, and make up for actors should be added in.

There was general agreement that the key tasks that could help move us to puzzle creation stage were

• location scouting,
• taking another pass through the "puzzle inventory" document, and
• reviewing the brainstorming list of puzzle ideas.

IN-CHARACTER WEB SITE

We noted that we might have some fun including fake press interviews/articles, and press releases on the public Doctor When web site. [Note that we previously proposed calling Doctor When's company "Trenchwood" as an homage to Doctor Who which used the name "Torchwood" prominently...and Trenchwood is an anagram of Doctor When, just like Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.]

LOCATION SCOUTING

The key decision is where the central laboratory will be located. The team leaned toward a San Francisco location because a) it's near the Long Now Foundation model clock and the Noe Valley clock repair shop (both promising locations), and b) because a San Francisco location might make it easy for each Part of the game to loop to a different area: north bay, the City, and the Peninsula.

Melissa has some time available to help kick off the process. Allen already has a few leads, so she will contact Allen, get the leads and follow them up. This includes making initial contact with appropriate artist warehouses, etc., sweet talking them to get them interested, visiting their sites (and photograph) as appropriate, networking with them to identify additional sites, and posting text and pictures on the wiki. We also need someone/her to visit and photograph the Long Now Foundation model clock and the Noe Valley Clock Repair shop.

GARBLED MESSAGES ACROSS THE HISTORICAL RECORD

We had a discussion of why Doctor When would be leaving the players garbled messages throughout history. Allen pointed out that the *real* out of character reason is that...it's funny.

But there remains the question of why doesn't Doctor When just *tell* the players what to do? Possible answers include:

• he doesn't know all the answers
• he's trying, but his messages have been corrupted over time
• He had to be very clever to think through what would be undisturbed across the ages
• He wanted to be subtle so as to not ruin the timeline

Allen vowed that although he cannot create puzzles, if anyone comes up with a fun time-related puzzle he will create back-story to fit it convincingly into our plot.

BRAINSTORMING LIST

One ingredient to inspire puzzle creation is to review the long list of ideas already brainstormed. They are on the wiki.

Allen did so and the time travel clichés ideas/themes he'd most like to see included in the game are:

• causality loop [which the Jiffy Pop puzzle will be]
• sun dial
• hour glass
• musical time signature
• altering famous works of art from throughout history ['cause it's funny]
• video of Doctor When at various famous points in history ['cause it's funny]
• players meet themselves (or at least see themselves on video)
• horrific robot apocalypse

Allen also had another idea: as the Doctor is bouncing around through history it might be funny if he goes all the way to the beginning of time, accidentally jiggles a singularity, and causes the Big Bang. It might not be a puzzle component...just sort of a funny side note, "oh, I always wondered what caused the beginning of the universe."

It was agreed that everyone should take a look over the various lists and come up with their own shortlist of "most want to see included in the game."

DRAFT PUZZLE INVENTORY

We spent some time reviewing at least the beginning of the puzzle inventory document. We agreed it's a start.

Everyone will read through the full document before the next meeting. Allen will attempt to fill in as many details as possible, with the understanding that most of them will end up being changed. But the hope is that at least his placeholder ideas will help spur the process.

There was general agreement that the Jiffy Pop puzzle should include a physical gadget, one for each team.

DAY OF GAME GAME CONTROL/SOLUTION CHECKER

It was proposed that the teams simply call the Prof. Chronus character to report their results after each puzzle/activity. She will then tell them what "research project" has to be done next (as opposed to an automated system, like Shinteki's Leon device).

• Admittedly this is very labor intensive
• On the other hand, it may be less prone to malfunction
• This approach is a bit "old school" like the early Games...which might be nostalgic and fun
• This approach might also mesh well with the more personal, non-competitive vibe we aspire to
• This would build in a lot of flexibility to send teams on more or fewer tasks, send the teams on the same tasks at different times (to avoid bottlenecks and to create the verisimilitude that they're not all doing the same thing), etc.

It is also possible that we could use a hybrid system in which teams enter some/all of their results into a special web site we set up, and phone in the rest. We're already considering requiring each team to bring everywhere Internet access so that they can watch our videos.

We also pondered assigning a "mentor" to each team. This person(s) would be required to monitor the progress of their team(s). If the team was taking too long, they could proactively call up and check in. This is labor intensive, but has been used to good result on other Games.

NEXT STEPS

The next meeting is in two weeks on Thursday, June 24. Before then:

Location scouting: Melissa will get leads from Allen and initiate the process.

Brainstorming list: everyone will review the ideas to date and come up with their own short list of ideas and/or time travel clichés they'd like in our game.

Puzzle Inventory: Everyone will read through the current draft 0.1 document. Allen will push the list as far as he can to come up with a draft 0.2.