[2014.11.10] Meeting with Macomi

These are my notes from the meeting with Macomi representatives. If there is something unclear or missing, please feel free to add/edit this page.

We have met with Corne, the founder of Macomi and one of the lead managers - Ricardo. Ricardo is thus our contact and Rogier has his contact information. It is possible that another designer, Tim, will also help us. They were all very enthusiastic and caring about the project outcome, as a means to improve their dealings with HTM.

So this project is to be a part of a greater deal Macomi has with HTM. In general, they are developing a simulation platform, using D-SOL, that is to integrate four layers of the system: infrastructure, trams, schedule and travelers. But this is far from complete and rather supposed to give us a clear picture of the background.

As for the actual project, just as stated in the document, the problem is to create a training game for tram traffic controllers to efficiently deal with obstacles. Currently, when trouble occurs (like tram breaking down), the controllers use outdated procedures and they do not even know why they use these procedures and whether they are any good. Thus, traffic controllers, through a means of a game are to be engaged to think of different, better emergent solutions that could be instantly evaluated and scored, based on the choices of the controllers that lead to some trade-offs (For instance, asking passengers to wait but get them to their destination or being on time and dropping them off somewhere else). On top of that, the game absolutely has to be fun and engaging. It can possibly be a data collection tool for new procedural solutions, should we decide to go into the simulation more in depth. Depending on that, Macomi will advise for using their simulation engine or against.

Ricardo has some documents containing different type of disruptions and possible actions to be takes. So when out-of-ordinary something happens, the player should be given a set of possible actions and be evaluated based on them (score, power-ups etc.) One of the important game features is also animation, that should engage the players and make the learning process fun (so that people want to play this game after work too). Ideally, the full version of the game (not our prototype) would be played during special workshops/training for the HTM people.

We also received a loose set of (unordered) ideas/preferences towards the game. These are:

• use Unity platform for game development
• create a rather mobile application - swiping is more engaging than using a mouse
• do not be too abstract with the system but you might go wild with the details
• if you want to create a tram track network, use rather a made-up one with parts having their real-life equivalent
• check out a similar game at http://www.jbss.de/