Week 4: prototype write up
The experience for our story starts off with the reader sitting down with a computer with the tea all set up around them, which includes the tea set, tea box and the tea itself. The player opens up Twine and begins to answer the starting questions, while the player is answering the questions, the water for the tea boils in the kettle. Once the player has answered questions about their personal viewpoint (Do you have a lot of confidence? How important is your family's perception of you?) they are presented with a story and instructions on how to create their tea. There is a wide variety of stories: from the personal triumph of loving and living as yourself in spite of others, to the pain of rejection and racism, Spill you Tea focuses on many different types of oppression and the empowerment stories that stem from our ability to define ourselves. After the story is read, the reader will be directed towards the tea box, which they will open and see the tea bags inside, which they will open as well to reveal the end of the story they read.
To read the stories, please refer to the designers below.
When we started creating our physical aspect, it wasn’t too difficult because most of it we either bought or received second-hand, most of them being the tea sets and cups and the tea itself. The physical tea making process was something we were set on from pretty much the first week of working on the project. Wei and Kevin were in charge of finding our tea sets and tea. Working together, they decided which teas to use. Wei focused on finding the correct tea sets for the types of tea, and Kevin purchased our tea box. The tea sets and tools are beautiful, but more importantly, help set the tone for the experience. Wei spent a lot of time relating the tea sets to the tea; for example, our use of Earl Grey tea is with an English tea set, where the Motcha tea is used with a Japanese set. Wei has been bringing in all of the tea sets and introducing us to the teas in their tea sets. We're each choosing our rituals to commit to the twine. One thing that we recently decided to add back into the physical aspect is at the very end of the story, the reader has to open the tea box, which inside has a tea bag and within the tea bag is the rest of the story or a small part of it.
From the get-go, we all knew that our digital aspect was going to be through Twine but we were unsure of how we were going to go about placing the stories and tea making instructions within the game. We decided to create questions that the reader can go through in Twine to be given a certain story to read, along with the instructions for making the tea. We storyboarded out our digital interaction several different ways. With the questions, we went to our whiteboard and wrote out all of our questions and responses, drawing lines to link things together. We then wrote this down, and then put it into LucidChart. For the stories, we cut up the stories and the basic ritual, and spliced them together to start to see the timing. We then put both of these together in Twine. To test the interaction, click here.
At this point in time, we are entertaining the idea that each piece of a story could be physically placed within the tea bag and in the teapot in a way so as the reader goes through the making of the tea, which instructions would be through Twine, they get a piece of the story that correlates to that particular step so it will make the interaction between the physical and digital stronger.
Some of the issues at the beginning of our process that we faced were related to the logistics of how everything was going to eventually come together. We had some difficulties with the interaction between our physical and digital aspects. At the start of our idea, we wanted to do something along the lines of “the language of flowers” but the idea ended up being too vague and not concrete enough so we moved on to tea, which proved to be a great and difficult decision.
After writing all of our personal stories, we spent some time talking about tea and went about trying to match a specific tea to each specific story. It took some testing to walk through each tea-making process with each story and we had to change some things around as well. Also, we played with the idea that we wanted to have the second half of each story to be placed in a tea bag but decided against it.
Going into the digital interaction, we played with a lot of ideas including alternate endings but decided that we either didn’t have enough time or it would change the meaning of our project. We were originally going to start out the Twine game with very personal questions but decided to “lighten” it up a bit, in case anyone playing the game didn’t want to answer some of them. It was a struggle going through each of the questions and answers, putting them into LucidChart because some of them didn’t lead to the stories we wanted them to. We were also going to put the tea instructions inside the Twine along with the stories, but we also thought it might make it too clunky so we had to rethink that idea as well.
One big issue that we faced was how we were going to incorporate the tea instructions and our stories within Twine. We shot a video to show to the class on May 8th and we realized that we kind of lost some of our interaction between the digital and physical. The stories didn’t feel as personal being on a screen.
Thus, we have some questions for our classmates.
Digital interaction:
The beginning questions are framed more around the idea of getting to know what a person cares about in their life. Do the questions make sense? Do you think we should make them more about how they like their tea?
Do you find the twine game too plain looking? Do you think that adding a lot of colors would be distracting?
Physical Interaction:
What feels like a better flow: having the personal stories of each team member presented in the Twine while reading instructions for how to make the tea, or having the twine focus on the instructions, and having the story hidden in the tools to make tea, eg as you’re instructed to pour the tea, you pull more of the story about of the teapot.
Stories:
Each story deals with personal struggle through different forms of oppression, and always ends with the a moment of empowerment. Are the stories too short?
To end, we've written some reflective pieces about how we individually feel about the project. Continue on to hear what we have to say.
ASHLEY
I’ve taken on the role of note taking and keeping track of our creative process as a team throughout the project. Documenting what our successes, failures, ideas, and thoughts are as we try and run with them to see what would maximize the interaction between our Twine and physical interaction with tea. Also, keeping track of which ideas come from which members and making sure everyone has a voice within the project.
At this moment, I am very proud of how far we have gotten with our project. Our idea at the beginning was fairly vague and needed a lot of logistic testing, which in turn led us to a few dead-ends and we’ve had to re-think some things. Despite the difficulties we’ve faced, we have been very open with each other with how we want our stories presented and how we want the readers to interact with the tea. We’ve gotten very far in the setup for our final product, most of our Twine logistics are all finished, as well as the stories and which teas are going to be used. I am very excited to see our finished product!
I have personally learned an abundance of new things with this project, particularly in tea. I have never been a tea drinker so it has been so cool to be able to listen and be informed by Wei and Kevin, who did an absolutely great job at their research, about different types of teas and when and where each one is best used. Also, I’ve learned a lot about project management as well, as there are a lot of different things to get done to make sure everything pulls together nicely. So we all really needed to oversee everything and make sure each person has a job to do and what things need to get done, which everyone has done great so far.
Ashley's story relates to empowerment through self-acceptance and love. You can read it here.
WEI
My role in the creation is to gather all the teas, tea set and information about the tea. This was based on my traditional tea culture background. I took on the responsibilities to provide all of the tea. Also, I research the tea culture and form an interview with some of my family members to ask them how to cook tea. Moreover, Kevin and I also do matching on which Tea should be fit to each of our stories.
Overall, I think our project is in a perfect track. Everything is on schedule, and well planned. All of our members are in the right role. I appreciate all the hard works have done by our team members so far.
In my point of view, the most significant thing that I learned so far is the organization, and leadership skills which shown by our team members. I learned a lot about the scheduling, planning, and communication. Obviously, everything which done by our team members could be the takeaway point for me to utilize in the future.
Wei's story relates to oppression from other's via racism, and how his beliefs empower him to be himself. You can read it here.
KEVIN
I am an international student from China, and our project’s physical interaction is about Chinese tea rituals. Therefore, I did some research about steps of how to make tea and interviewed Wei to make it right. Also, we decided about tea sets, tea box, and citations. We have group meetings every week, and we always get new and fantastic ideas together.
At the beginning of this course, I thought the project is just a presentation with some creation or critical point. Right now. I really feel proud of my team. This project will be the best thing I ever had, and thanks to my teammates. We attend group meeting together. I have been in the U.S for several years but English is not my first language. However, Rachel, Ashley, and Kelly always listen to our opinions. Also, Wei knows a lot about Chinese tea. I am excited to show the project in class.
I am neither a tea drinker nor twine story maker, but I learned a lot about tea from our research and Wei. I learned how twine works and how can I make the twine story. Even though I've been in the U.S. for several years, my previous teammates always doing their own part and never communicate together as a real team. Teamwork, leadership and critical thinking are the reason why I came here to study. Thanks to my team.
Kevin's story relates to the oppression of your perceived self by family and the empowerment of living your dreams. You can read it here.
RACHEL
My role as a project manager has been to try and coordinate the creation of our collective vision while maintaining the many moving pieces involved within said task. From managing to-do lists to assisting in creating schedules, as well communicating a common understanding of what our shared vision is, I feel the responsibility of maintaining the integrity of both the group and the project. In addition to this, I have had my hands in several different aspects of the experience; from the creation of the twine to the leading of meetings, to help with the website, and the story process. I’ve been enjoying the flexibility of being involved in many different things! That’s something that I feel passionate about in our group; while we all have roles, we are able to have influence and speak up. It’s important to me that everyone feels heard.
I’ve enjoyed working on this project immensely. I was nervous about completing such a seemingly difficult project, but it’s been an enriching experience. I think the most rewarding part of the process has been our team's’ ability to share our stories, and then being able to learn about tea. I’ve really enjoyed listening to Wei and Kevin tell us more about their culture; I feel like this is what these type of classes are meant to accomplish, and it feels like we’re teaching each other in such an interactive way. Every time we get to hang out as a group or have meetings, I walk away feeling like we’re making a difference in each other’s lives. To me, that’s the best part of working as a team.
In terms of the actual work, it is a lot of work! I have tried to apply what I’ve learned in other group projects, trying to prototype early and often. While I think that this succeeded to a degree, I’ve found that sometimes it’s not as simple as trying it once or twice. I feel like we’ve gone through three or four iterations of how the stories and tea making going together, but as we collect and learn more in class, we edit and redefine. To me, this is one of the most stressful, but interesting aspects of creating an interactive fiction: the more that you learn about it, the more you want to push the bounds of what that may actually be.
Currently, I’m wrapped up in developing the twine game. While the basic substructure is easy to create, I’ve found that it takes an insane amount of organization. Even my use of LucidChart hasn’t always been the most helpful, as the complexity of our story is great. What I’ve discovered is that each “section” of the story must be developed in LucidChart, and then combined into the twine. When I’ve tried to create each whole tree (meaning from one line start to finish) it’s easy to forget parts. I’m also struggling with variables, and need to look into more resources with that particular piece, as it will make taking the audience to different pieces of the fiction more succinct.
I’ve learned a lot about listening, planning, and communication. While I’ve done a lot of group work before, I’ve not worked with a large number of students that have English as a second language. Being able to learn and better understand how this changes communication has been eye-opening and showcases how reliant we as humans are on common understandings. I’m consistently impressed with how we all communicate with each other, easing over discrepancies and always asking for clarification. In the world that I grew up in, this is not how we would have handled that type of situation, and I’m so glad that we are the living examples of what the world can be like when we don’t do that. In terms of learning about listening and planning, as a project manager this has been a very intense process; while I’ve worked in projects with this many moving parts, I think that the complexity of this project is different, and so my skills have been under more intense use. I’m so thankful for my team members understandings of any bumps in the road. I feel that we’re all so supportive of each other; we want to listen to each other, and that is half of the battle. I call that type of mentality a compassionate learning community, which is important in not only academic environments but in the world. In the end, I’m watching myself become a more understanding and thoughtful listener.
Rachel's story deals with the oppression of societal and familial expectations, and the empowerment of living as your true self. You can read it here.
KELLY
My role in the creation of the project has so far consisted of transcribing the tea ceremony instructions into seven simplified steps and then creating story flow to go alongside that. I’ve basically chopped up the stories and then assigned certain parts of the story to certain parts of the tea rituals. For example, pre-steeping usually happens when a reoccurring theme of conflict enters the story. I have also done some work with planning out the physical interaction, I helped the team to come up with the tea idea and then helped the team figure out how to implement it.
I think the team project is going incredibly well so far. Everyone has contributed fully, deadlines have been flexible enough that I can actually meet them, people are coming to meetings and actually contributing, we need to work on changing a few things but the basic structure is down and we just need to work on adjusting a few of the moving parts.
So far I’ve learned that Rachel is a great leader, she can really take someone like me, (who can be directionless at times) and turn me into someone who works with intention and purpose, I always know what I need to be working on. The only thing I struggle with is finding the time to get everything done and meet deadlines, but that is not a fault of the project. Kevin and Wei have taught me so much about traditional Chinese tea and how to make it and Ashley has taught me a lot about website design and how to use Wix.
Kelly's story deals with the oppression of societal and familial expectations, and the empowerment of living as your true self. You can read it here.
LIST OF RESOURCES AND RESEARCH:
Works Cited
Baidu, Baike. “大红袍茶.” 到百科首页, 2018, baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A7%E7%BA%A2%E8%A2%8D%E8%8C%B6/481237.
Baidu, Baike. “铁观音功效与作用.” 到百科首页, 2018, baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%93%81%E8%A7%82%E9%9F%B3%E5%8A%9F%E6%95%88%E4%B8%8E%E4%BD%9C%E7%94%A8/7248894.
Cn, Puer. “陈皮普洱茶有哪些功效与作用.” 贵州省茶产业提升三年行动计划基本原则及主要目标 - 茶行业新闻,茶行业新闻动态 - 中国普洱茶网,Www.puercn.com, 2018, www.puercn.com/puerchazs/pecgx/134237.html.
Dai, Wei, and Mrs. Dai. “Wei Interviewing His Mother.” 22 Apr. 2018. Wei interviews his mother to learn more about traditional tea culture in China.
Dai, Wei, et al. “Sitting down and Learning Tea Ceremony with Kevin and Wei.” 1 May 2018. In class, we sit down and have a proper tea ceremony, exploring our stories and 'making tea' concept together.
Haodou, Haodou. “抹茶粉.” 抹茶粉的功效与作用及食用方法_好豆食材百科, 2018, www.haodou.com/recipe/food/6081/.
MD, Web. “Pu-Erh Tea: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Dosage, and Warning.” WebMD, WebMD, 2009, www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1169/pu-erh-tea.
Raymond, Rachel, et al. “We Interview Kevin and Wei.” 24 Apr. 2018. We speak with Wei more in-depth about the Teas' he and Kevin have chosen for us.
Source, Matcha. “Health Benefits of Matcha Tea.” Matcha Source, 2018, matchasource.com/health-benefits-of-matcha-tea/.
Teasenz, Teasenz. “Tie Guan Yin vs Green Tea: What's The Difference.” Teasenz, 8 July 2017, www.teasenz.com/chinese-tea/tie-guan-yin-vs-green-tea.html.
Teatulia, Teatulia. “What Is Earl Grey Tea?” Teatulia, 2018, www.teatulia.com/tea-varieties/what-is-earl-grey-tea.htm.
Teatulia, Teatulia. “What Is Oolong Tea?” Teatulia, 2018, www.teatulia.com/tea-varieties/what-is-oolong-tea.htm.
