Augmented Reality Game

Problem

Globo Nordeste needed to promote its annual Media Award at an industry event in a way that would stand out and get advertising professionals genuinely involved. A standard presentation was not going to be enough.

Solution

We created Monstros da Propaganda, a browser-based augmented reality game. Participants used a physical toy hammer to hit virtual advertising monsters that appeared from a printed AR marker board. No installation was needed, just a webcam and the game kit.

The game tracked movement in real time. Players had 60 seconds to score as much as possible, with a live scoreboard on screen throughout.

Results

The game successfully generated engagement and positive buzz for the Globo Nordeste Media Award. It became a finalist at the Peixe Grande Award 2009 in the Technical Jury category and was featured on design and technology websites including Papervision Showcase and Web da Gente.

Each monster started as a flat 2D illustration, then was applied as a texture on a 3D model built in Blender. The game was developed in Flash.

Four characters were created, each representing a different advertising monster: Mesmice (Sameness), Prazo (Deadline), Verba (Budget), and Crise (Crisis).

Each kit contained three items: a custom printed cardboard marker board, a toy hammer, and a webcam.

To play, participants opened the website, enabled their webcam, and pointed it at the printed board. The site detected the marker patterns on the board and used them to position the virtual monsters. Once the game started, monsters appeared from the board. Players used the hammer, held in front of the camera, to hit them.