Go Fest 2020
Lead Technical Artist
Niantic, Pokemon Go (2020), Unity Engine
In 2020 Pokemon Go had to adapt gameplay to a new reality. One of the team’s most triumphant examples of this was the work to pivot the annual in-person event Go Fest. Before this point, this tentpole annual celebration had brought hundreds of thousands players from around the world together in-person.
It was critical to come up with a virtual change of the in-game environment that would create a celebratory atmosphere no matter where players were. We had a very limited timeframe to brainstorm and implement— I was selected to spearhead these efforts as the Lead TA, precisely because of my ability to rapidly iterate satisfying technical solutions that spark joy!
A Concept Exploration Speed Run
— Two weeks to pivot —
Go Fest Sky Prototype
Confetti Trail Prototype
Rocket Bat Light Prototype
Go Fest Wind Prototype
Map Visuals as a Call to Action
Players needed to immediately know something exciting was happening when they opened the app. Once they were participating, we wanted the map visual to assist in prompting them to the correct game actions — as they would be asked to perform many different rotating tasks depending on local time zone.
Confetti offered a bold, fun visual that could be easily tweaked to help cue players and could easily be layered on top of other map fxs without eclipsing important information. Despite our limited timeframe, I was able to create a performant and robust effects system that can be easily reused for any event. (and has been several times since!).
Internal Tool
Planting Easter Eggs
— Part of the joy of an event like Go Fest is creating fun surprises for our players to discover, even when time is limited —
Making Of Featurette
