Summary:
BotLab was an Augmented Reality combat robotics simulation designed for middle-school aged children as an immersive demonstration to the National Robotics League (NRL) — allowing them to explore, design, and battle their own combat robots (Bots) in AR.
Client:
The National Robotics League
Platform & Technologies:
Augmented Reality | ARKit 2 | iOS | Unity
Development Cycle:
Four Month Project Semester
Developed by a team of five at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center.
Start screen of the experience.
Showcase mode: component and material customization.
Playtesting with our target demographic.
An example of single player arena-based combat.
Early developmental prototype playtest.
Paper-prototyping with children in early production phases.
A production document used for reference by the team's designers and programmers.
Documenting playtesting.
Production documentation developed for an external sound designer.
BotLab's RACI Breakdown.
Scripting for in-game dialogue.
The Experience:
BotLab is a single player experience and has two major modes of gameplay: Showcase, where guests explore, learn about, and customize the materials/components of their Bot, and Arena mode, where the guest learns to control, operate, and battle their Bot.
Production Documentation Examples:
As the team's producer, I helped to drive development by establishing a unified vision amongst the team, breaking the project down into manageable sprints and milestones, and facilitated further iterations in design by integrating regular play-testing sessions into our development cycle.In addition to running dailies and SCRUM, I was responsible for a variety of internal research, production, and development resources for the team. I maintained regular communication with the client, industry experts, and worked with local schools to provide a large pool of play-testers in our target demographic. I worked with outside sound and musical talent to develop a fun, complex, industrial, soundscape.
I was also responsible for compiling comprehensive development documentation as part of the client hand off to enable future development by an external team.
Playtesting earlier iterations of design with middle school aged children.
"BotLab has created a tool to be able to promote career and technical education, which is something vital to the NRL…
...students are able to customize, drive, and battle a bot and understand the fundamentals of it in a safe environment."
-Bill Padnos
...students are able to customize, drive, and battle a bot and understand the fundamentals of it in a safe environment."
-Bill Padnos
You can discover more about BotLab here.
The National Robotics League (NRL) is a manufacturing workforce development program of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) where students design and build remote controlled robots (Bots) to face-off in a gladiator-style competition. Through the manufacturing process of Bot building, students’ imaginations are captured as they design, build and compete with their own robotic creations. Through this hands-on effort along with industry partnerships, students gain practical knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) – all essential skills for manufacturing.