Room Layout??

Lately I have been making some sketches of room layout. These are speculations because I intend to switch galleries. Originally when I signed up for my gallery space I was limited because some of the galleries are reserved for MFA students. I currently have gallery 8 on the 3rd floor of the art building. I am concerned about this for a couple of reasons.
1. There are two doors into that gallery. I could make this work to my advantage, but I think this might unnecessarily complicate the space.
2. Heavy furniture! I really need to be on the first floor so I do not have to lug large heavy furniture up 3 flights of stairs. I am not sure exactly how much furniture I need or if it will fit in the elevator.

I would prefer gallery 2 which is the medium sized gallery on the first floor. I have designed possible layouts for both gallery 2 and gallery 8.

Executive [Artist License] Decision

I have had to make some difficult decisions regarding the rules of my game after receiving copious amounts of feedback.

Some of these choices have been:
1. I am keeping pets as people; not hand drawn pets. I gave pets the agency to die whenever they wish and also instructions to get petted as many times as possible by the other non-pet players.
2. There are no strict turns. The receptionist decides who has a turn based on critical need.
3. I added a line to the rules to allow the receptionist to make the game up as they go along if they so choose.
4. I left the option on the client information sheet for the client to choose "other" as their pet despite not being able to have their pet treated at this particular hospital. Only dogs and cats are seen here.

It is my game, I am the designer, I feel I should have the agency to make these decisions because it is the way I want the players to experience the game.

At the beginning of this semester I met again with Steve and we discussed the overall tone of the project. I had wanted to incorporate audio that played sounds from the "back" of the hospital to make light of the situation because there are frequently people back there making jokes and having fun even during very serious situations. We decided against this as it will take away from the focal point of the show - the game. Hopefully I can reduce things so there are not many distractions.

Successful Play Session

Tonight I was finally able to play test again. This time I had loads of players and most of them game design savvy to boot!

My favorite quote from this evening "I feel like there needs to be some better form of turn taking, but that being said I love the chaos!"

Things I need to consider post play test:
1. pets need more agency or at least more to do?
2. do I still allow for the pet option "other"?
3. should I change the game up to have more strict rules in terms of turn taking or do I leave things in the chaotic state they are currently in?

OMG - people had fun!