Channels

Channels are a means of sending content to players in an exercise. The channels in Colibri look and behave just the same as they do in Conducttr's teams-based licences. But there are some key differences to consider - chiefly that the player must interact with content in the channel to advance the exercise.

Primary channel

The default channel in Colibri is Msngr. This is because the chat feed feels the most natural in most cases.

Examples

• Msngr

• Email

An example of the primary channel (Msngr)

The core narrative of your exercise should stay within one main channel to avoid player overload (which can lead to confusion). Colibri is designed with this in mind, so connecting steps will attempt to force you to stay within the same channel (you'll have the use the "also publish" field to jump channels).

The default channel is Msngr because the best primary channels are messenger-based. This allows you to use personas to interact with participants directly. Personas will deliver the necessary questions and players will make choices from these steps.

Secondary channels

Examples

• MicroBlog

• Website/News

• Notification

• Media pop-up

• Phone call

• Walkie-talkie

• Diagrams

• Captions

• Portal

• Blog

• TV

An example of a secondary channel (MicroBlog)

To publish content in another channel, you'll need to use the "also publish" field. These channels will then be considered your secondary channels. They can be used for:

• Realism

• Worldbuilding

• Foreshadowing

• Enhancing player engagement

• Delivering information in different ways

⚡Behaviours to note

Some channels have particular behaviours that are important to note.

Phone call

When designing with the phone call channel, you'll be offered two choices under Call Answered and Call Rejected in the Interactions tab:

This allows you to select different steps based on whether the player answers or rejects the call. You can use this to create branching in your exercise.

To learn more about branching, visit the page below:

Branching and Choices

Media pop-up

What is a media pop-up?

This channel allows you to disrupt the exercise for participants in the form of a video that takes over the virtual desktop.

When designing with the media pop-up channel, you can set a timer for when the pop-up should end. This means you can finish the video playing earlier than it's actual length if you want to:

You can publish new content when the video finishes (or video timer expires). Configure this in the Interactions tab:

Notification

What is a notification?

The notification channel allows you to send players a pop-up notification, regardless of what channel they're currently in. This disrupts the normal flow of the exercise and demands attention.

Question

If you use a question on the notification channel, you can't use the timer. This is because the player's click of the button will close the notification.

Narrative

Use the narrative option when you want to use a notification with no player interaction.

Similar to the media pop-up channel, you can set the timer to 0 for it to run forever until the player closes the notification.

Channels with no interactions

• MicroBlog

• Website/News

• Walkie-talkie

• Diagrams

• Captions

• TV

Channel styling

Under Configuration > Player desktop in the Editor you can:

• Choose whether to have all channels open from the start or only visible after content has been released

• Edit font, size, and colour of channel icon text (this includes the Player name text too)

• Customise channel names and logos

• Choose the default channel (where the player will start the exercise)

Click on a channel to customise the logo and channel name:

To find out more about styling your Colibri exercise, visit the page below:

Style