Tonehenge

Creator

Niantic Real World Platform Showcase (2018), Unity Engine

The 2018 Niantic Press Event was an introduction of Niantic’s AR Platform technology to the world. I was asked to create a demo that would showcase the potential of shared AR puzzle experiences and push the limitations of mobile AR graphical fidelity. This was my first project at Niantic.

Tactile AR Experiences

There is a dissonance between the unconstrained real-world camera and the game-world overlay which makes it difficult to give game objects weight in AR. I found through my exploration that it’s extremely important to give the users visual, audio, and haptic feedback in order to create a tactile illusion.

The unique challenges of guiding a playing through AR space

It’s always a challenge to direct the player’s attention, but in Mobile AR it can be especially difficult. The phone screen offers an extremely small window for interactions - players can easily get disoriented, especially when interacting closely with game objects that may eclipse their limited viewport. As a developer you don’t even have the option to claim control of the camera for a cut scene; it’s very easy for players to miss important information if they’re not looking in the right place at the right time. I found through my exploration that players had a hard time even with simple puzzle premises and required clear persistent visual cues in order to stay on track.