PROTECT YO’ ELF
AR MOBILE GAME
PROTECT YO’ ELF…
…was created while Kevin was employed as Digital Services Manager at Small Army. The agency wanted to use its annual holiday card as a chance to display the capabilities of augmented reality (AR) while also creating something fun and memorable. Serving as the project’s Digital Producer and Gameplay Director was an exciting opportunity for Kevin, as he was able to educate the internal team about the process, deliverables, and best practices when working with AR. The game was launched just in time to be featured in AdWeek’s collection of best agency holiday cards!
GAMEPLAY:
Elves are carrying food and drinks to the office holiday party. As elves exit the T stops on the far side of the park, they are beset by snowmen. The user must aim the reticle at the snowmen and tap to destroy them, lest they become snowmen too.
In addition to the action taking place in the park, there are many details that bring the setting to life. Team members wait in the office windows, celebrating when elves reach the party. Billboards around the map cycle randomly to display graphics for Small Army’s clients. Music emanating from the tree in the center of the park illustrates the basics of spatial audio in XR.
PROCESS:
From start to finish, the project took about 6 weeks.
While Kevin worked with the developers on prototyping the environment, the creative team worked on sketches and mood boards for the characters and environment.
The sketches were turned into 3D models and animated in 3ds Max. The environment and characters were composited and programmed in Unity.
Each week, Kevin and the dev team would release another version with updated graphics, gameplay tweaks, and bug fixes.
DOWNLOAD THE GAME…
On the App Store or Google Play Store today.