In this post I’ll be narrate my “journey” throw my first assignment: ” create an AR detective game”.
Initially, my idea was to create a “Christmas murder game”, a sort of Dystopia, where the typical Christmas symbols, turned suddenly into something negative, creating a melancholic atmosphere.
Later on, trying to work on my project on Padlet, adding details, for example adding images to visualize better the concepts, I realized that, despite the idea and the characters, I couldn’t give an actual plot to my game, I didn’t know how to make the facts follow while the user was using the app; overall it didn’t make much sense.
So I decided to change completely and start it all over again. I stopped and took my time to think step by step each component of my game from scratch to the final product. I wanted it to be a bit more personal (compared to the previous idea), in order to tell something about me, in fact being our first assignment, I have seen it as a sort of funny way to get to know each other a bit better, which it has been quite difficult because of all of this terrible situation.
PADLET LINK: https://padlet.com/aghaffarian1220191/elxn2rb1mt0vnzqn
Courage the cowardly dog: AR experience
I decided to inspire my game to one of the cartoons that characterized my childhood “Courage the cowardly dog”. I chose this cartoon because, besides being scary and fun at the same time, it can be seen as a detective animation, where Courage, the lovely main character, has to save Muriel (its mistress), which inevitably gets always in trouble.
first step:
I started with Padlet, where I decided which characters should be on the game, gave them a specific role and described them a little. All the characters exist in the cartoon, but they belong to different episodes, so I did a sort of mesh-up and created my own plot.
second step:
I uploaded the image targets on Unity. For each image will appear a 2D/3D animation or text, which will give the player an information to solve the mysterious Muriel missing. Augmented reality is created with Vuforia Engine (a Unity package).
How does it work?
- The player will scan Courage image and on it will appear a text saying that he is the detective.
2. the second image that will be scanned is Muriel’s. on it it will appear a text that says: ” help! I’ve been kidnapped!”.
3. the player than will have to scan three different QR codes. On each of them will appear an animated cube, where every face will have the image of the suspect. The cubes will move and rotate, therefore the player will have to be careful and pay attention to the details on the image, which will be precious for solving the case.
4. The first suspect is Eustace Bagge, Muriel’s husband; he is extremely grouchy, rude, selfish, possessive, stubborn and insensitive. He often repeats the phrase “Stupid dog!” referring to Courage, sometimes even for no reason, and enjoys scaring him by using a mask. Often Eustace treats Muriel more like a servant than a wife.
5. The second suspect is Ma Bagge, Eustace’s mother who shows contempt for everyone and in particular for her son, always calling him a “stupid boy”. She always wears a red wig to hide her baldness.
6. The tird and last suspect is Le Quack, a very cunning cruel French duck, He is an excellent criminal, known for his escapes are famous.
7. The computer will be Courage’s helper, in fact when Courage is unable to face the monster on duty he turns to him as he often provides valuable advice. When the player will scan the image on the compuer screen will appear the crucial clue, which would be an object that belongs to one of the three suspect.