Your Design Document is due on February 26 as the first submitted part of your group project. It will be handed in as a group and each of your team members will get the same grade. However, how you choose to build and edit the document is up to you as a team. I’ve indicated which job roles are most suited to writing which sections, but you don’t need to follow my guide. And you should have the strongest writers/editors do the final revision before submission in any case. It should come in at about 2,000-2,500 words (roughly).
The basic requirements are as follows:
Title: Catchy name for your game / guide
Team Members: Your names and assigned roles
Concept (Designer, 400 words): What is the original idea behind your ARG? How did the idea develop? How does it reflect an intelligent speculation about the future? Most importantly, what is the purpose behind creating this particular project? What will a user learn from the experience? How will it make them think about the future? Why should they care?
Background (Research Head, 400 words): What real-world information have you based your vision of the future on? What research, writers or emerging technologies suggest that your speculation on the future is potentially accurate? What are the wider social-technological trends that your ARG sheds light on?
Story (Writer, 400 words): What is the storyline or quest that will engage users of your ARG? What are the details of plot, character, setting, mystery, etc. that will bring your ideas to life? What elements or sub-themes have you chosen to focus on? How will these pieces fit together into a beginning, middle and conclusion?
Design (Art Director, 400 words): What will the visual, audio & multimedia design of the ARG be like? How will you integrate the campus space into this design? Where will you source the multimedia elements of this project? What technical tools/skills might you need? Why have you made these choices?
Implementation (Tech Lead, 400 words): What software have you decided to use (ARIS, or something else)? How do you intend to use this tool to develop your ARG? What are the potential technical challenges? What other resources have you found to help you succeed? How will you integrate non-tech team members into the creation and testing of your ARG? How will you debug before launch?
Production Plan (Producer, 400 words): How have you organized your team to deliver a working ARG by deadline? What systems have you developed for communicating, meeting up, dividing the work, making decisions, putting together the different parts, testing the ARG, and finalizing the project? Do you have back-up plans if things go wrong? How will you pitch the project?
Bibliography (Research Head + everyone, one page): A formatted list of sources, including all necessary bibliographical info (journal articles, books, news articles, websites, experts and other primary sources)