Hello everyone! This is the momentous occasion of our first ever development update.
We’ve been busier with the doing than with the blogging-about-doing, but we’ve finally got around to it now. Which does mean that right now you’re reading about things that actually happened a few months ago.
I wanted to write this post anyway, even if it’s late. This was the moment where, after a lot of work, we went from nothing to something, and I think that’s a step worth celebrating.
More precisely, we have gone from our old “functional” prototype – which merely let us prove the principle and develop some software – to a proper, “official” prototype that looks and feels like the final thing.
And, most importantly, we’ve had a chance to put it in front of real people and see how they respond. And their enthusiasm has been overwhelming!
Feedback
We got one piece of feedback immediately: the seat is too high for short people! Fortunately, that’s no problem at all to fix in the next iteration.
Everyone was grateful for the airflow fan. A bit of luck really, since it was something of a spur-of-the-moment addition to the design.
One thing we have noticed is that playing games is more intuitive on the Joyride. In a lot of sit-down games, a newbie can find themselves totally at sea with the controls. That’s not the case here – people just climb on and off they go.
Quite a lot of people thought our awesome point-of-sale – done in the style of an old arcade cabinet, made with the help of celebrated furniture manufacturer Jali Ltd, and assembled at 3am the night before the demo – was part of our product. No, it’s ours. Get your own.
Next Steps
Our next priority is software. We want to make sure there’s a wealth of games, apps and programs available right out of the box. More on that soon!
At the same time, I want to make a few little fixes to the design, and then we’re ready to start value engineering and planning for manufacture. This is where the fun begins.
The Exertia Blog 