Blindspot

Blindspot is an Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) project in partnership with the Data-Driven Diversity Lab (D3) at Carnegie Mellon University. D3 uses data and insights from psychology and behavioral economics to understand how different groups experience student success, thriving, and a sense of belonging at Carnegie Mellon University. Using D3’s insights, our team is creating an interactive transformational experience that aims to raise awareness and inspire action to counteract the negative impact of stereotypes and microaggressions that emerge in everyday contexts.

The deliverable is a 2D web-based game that tells a story of a Chinese girl who is fresh off the boat and experiences microaggressions in her college life. The experience consists of a prologue that gives background information of the protagonist, three chapters that happen in different places, and an ending that summarizes the story. The experience unfolds a story where the protagonist is hesitant at the beginning but becomes stronger and stays true to who she is in the end.

Our Client

Data-Driven Diversity Lab

D3 uses data and insights from psychology and behavioral economics to understand how different groups experience student success, thriving, and a sense of belonging at Carnegie Mellon University.

Our Team

Shengyao (Shelley) Xiao

Producer

Shelley is a software engineer who explores the space between art, design, and humans.

Xiaoyu (Jamie) Cui

Game Designer

Xiaoyu(Jamie) Cui is a programmer who has a strong interest in computer graphics, VFX and interactive storytelling.

Boyuan (Michael) Lu

Programmer

Michael is a second year student at ETC who is interested in game programming and how to design games with various input devices.

Yuanqin Fan

Writer/Programmer

Yuanqin is interested in web and game development. And he always has the willingness to learn and adapt to new programming languages, frameworks, and game engines.

Haiyun Wu

2D Artist

Haiyun is a human-centered designer, inspiring people through art and strong visuals. Her passion is creating 2D and 3D experiences.

Learn more from our weekly blog

Weekly Blog

Blindspot Post-Mortem

Overview of the project Blindspot is an Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) project in partnership with the Data-Driven Diversity Lab (D3) at Carnegie Mellon University. D3 uses data and insights from psychology and behavioral economics to understand how different groups experience student success, thriving, and a sense […]
by shengyao
on May 14
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Weekly Blog

Week 14 – Handoff

We’re approaching the end of this semester. This week, we made final changes to the script and debugged the code. We encountered an interesting issue that sometimes the game can’t replay using Chrome browser. We found out it could be lacking user input initially. (Chrome requires […]
by shengyao
on May 10
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Weekly Blog

Week 13 – Softs

Usually, Softs is where a team presents its deliverable to the faculty and gets feedback. Then the team can use the time before finals to polish its work. However, our game takes about 30 minutes to finish so it’s not possible for the faculty to play […]
by shengyao
on May 3
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Weekly Blog

Week 12 – A Complete Story!

Yeah! We now have all of our 3 chapters ready to play at /demo/ Our demo video is out as well Of course, we’ll continue iterating and playtesting. We can’t wait to hear feedback from the faculty and the client! (Next week we’ll have Softs, where […]
by shengyao
on Apr 26
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Weekly Blog

Week 11 – Chapter 3 Story

The programmer is adding visual hints to the puzzles in previous chapters and developing the puzzles in Chapter 3. The artist is working on Chapter 3 art assets. The designer is designing the ending & flashback. Those things go smoothly. However, the story part is where […]
by shengyao
on Apr 20
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Weekly Blog

Week 10 – Chapter 3 Design & Playtests

While holding playtests, we started to design and write a story script for Chapter 3. In Chapter 3, we intended to let Meimei act more directly on those issues and also receive help and support from her friends. The scenario is that Meimei is having a […]
by shengyao
on Apr 13
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Instructor

Mike Christel

Mike is interested in the development and evaluation of transformational games, especially in the areas of education and health care. Mike joined the ETC Faculty in 2008, moving from Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science Department where he was working at the intersection of speech recognition, image processing, and multimedia interface development and evaluation. As a member of the Informedia Digital Video Library research team, he received the Allen Newell Award for Research Excellence. Before that, from 1987 to 1997 he worked at the Software Engineering Institute at CMU. Mike received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in 1991 with a thesis examining dynamically generated digital video interfaces. Entertainment builds from experiences, and Mike loves to travel with his family, having enjoyed each of the 50 states in the U.S. on various journeys.

Instructor

Shirley Saldamarco

Shirley Saldamarco is an entrepreneur, a producer and an educator. She has a background in theatre from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and Producer for national programming at WQED-TV. As President of Interactive Media Productions, the company she founded in 1982, she produces a variety of Broadcast and Non-broadcast programs.

As an Independent Producer, projects include documentaries, public affairs and special programs, which have aired on PBS, network and cable television. She proudly displays a number of awards including an Emmy nomination, Matrix Award in Broadcast News and Documentary, Golden Cine, Pennsylvania Cable Arts Network Award, American Psychological Association Award, and several Telly Awards. Shirley has a particular interest in producing quality programming for children and was Creator and Executive Producer for the pilot, “Charlie’s Sharing Adventure,” as well as Dialogue Director for 52 episodes of “Johnson and Friends,” on Fox Network.