Recording Virtual Opponent

Research

Design Challenge

This devlog contributes to the design challenge: "Build upon an existing game made for diabetes patients, so they can record a play-through to be played back as virtual opponents by other patients with the same condition." 

Context

A new feature will be added in the form of a virtual opponent. This virtual opponent is basically the recording of a play-through someone else played before. This will act as a sort of ghost opponent where turns are predetermined. To be able to play against a recording, first a recording has to be made containing all data to replay the same play-through later as a ghost opponent. 

What actions should be recorded and what has already been worked on by earlier developers? 

* Another intern is actively working on the replaying part of this feature. My work will primarily be on the recording part of the feature.

**This feature is split up into two parts: Research and Implementation.

Methods

Field - Interview (Company Mentor)

When I got the feature assigned to me, they told me there was another developer who has worked on this exact feature. Unfortunately, his internship ended so the feature was never finished. That's why they passed the whole feature on to me and the other running intern. They weren't quite sure how much the previous developer had managed to finish.

Field - Document Analysis

The previous developer had left us a video in which he explained what he had done so far and what still needed to be done. In this video (which I cannot share because of my NDA), he explained there needed to be a toggle for recording and the file needed to be saved. 

Library - Product Analysis

I started checking out the code to find out exactly what was worked on. The previous developer managed to record tiles, dice rolls and events. He started working on the recording of random events and foods eaten, however this wasn't fully completed yet and was full of bugs. 

What I still needed to do were a couple of things. I had to fix the parts he had started and add exercising, medicine & insuline usage, adding a toggle and saving the file. Saving the file was going to be temporarily because this will later be changed to be saved on a global service ran by TU/e. 

Result & Validation

By doing this research, I got insight into what still needed to be done in the recording of the virtual opponent. I validated the research by discussing it with the intern who is going to use this feature later on to reproduce a play-through. He agreed on the design and research I've been doing.

Next step

Now I know what is still needed to be done, I'll be able to implement this feature.

Sources

Video previous developer (2022, February 14) - From Company mentor (I cannot disclose this video due to privacy reasons)