eye on the prize
client
strong Museum of play
Team
6 Designers | 3 Developers
role
Interactive Designer
timeline
13 weeks
Eye on the Prize is a fast paced memory game, challenging players to recite shape patterns before their opponents.
Client background
We had the amazing opportunity to work with the Strong Museum of Play for our project. Their museum focuses on preserving and showcasing the history of play with interactive exhibits.
The team at The Strong was looking for a group to create testable exhibits for a future exhibit they are in the work of creating called "Beyond the Buzzer". An exhibit space designed to pay homage to the history of game shows.
getting started
research
The team at The Strong was kind enough to let us tour their amazing work spaces behind the scenes and even get a chance to interact with their current exhibits. Along with this we got to see their amazing archives of game history including some of the game show pieces!
We learned a lot of great techniques that The Strong was using for certain physical interactions that we would later take inspiration from. It was also a great chance to see how these exhibits were displayed and worked in a professional environment.
pitch
Our team had to start with pitching three seperate game ideas. We decided to base each idea off of a polular game show from the past and add our own twist with the physical mechanics. We pitches three ideas; Think-O, Eye on the Prize, and Tricktionary.
AND THE WINNER IS……Eye on the Prize! A memory based pattern recognition game where you play two other players to be the quickest to memorize and recited your pattern.
lets build
For this project we needed to play to our strengths as designers, so for myself I focused on motion graphics and exhibit design.
Motion Graphics
I had the honor of making our amazing characters Eppi, Heartly, and Teebee! We added characters to our game to appeal to children and to help players recognize which lane was their's while playing.
I created four animation states for each character; spawn, idle, joy, and sadness. Each character's animations were unique to them and we found that people really enjoyed making their character do their happy dance!
exhibit design
I started this off with making a 3D mockup of our exhibit space and layout. This helped us decide what technology we would need to collect as well as how much of the space we would need to build.
Once we decided on the exhibit space, and more importantly how many podiums we needed, it was time to start the creation of said podiums.
We started with a cardboard prototype that allowed us to test our game as well.
We then got to building the real deal and it was quite the journey. Our builds started with creating the frames out of recycled 2x4. We then cut the outside boards out of MDF, for the more intricate parts we were able to use a laser to cut the MDF.
My other teammates were in charge of the buttons which were 3D printed and programed by our developers.
Once we finished the podiums were completee the next step was setup on the big day which is when the whole exhibit really came together!
showtime
We exhibited at RIT's Imagine Festival where many from the Rochester community come to see the work of senior students at RIT.
Our exhibit's design really came together here, we turned a computer lab into our own game show studio! We included a 'live studio audience' section for viewers. Line management was also included which played to our success a lot during busier times of the day.
take away
Our experience at Imagine RIT was a great success, with the game drawing attention and engaging visitors all day. The physical buttons were a big hit, though their durability became a challenge as people slammed them a bit too hard. We also realized that more animations and sound cues would’ve helped polish the game and provide better feedback for players. Overall, the event was an excellent learning opportunity and gave us insights into user behavior and how to improve both the design and functionality of the game.
