Kaohsiung Metro Romance
Toii collaborated with Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corporation (KRT) to create a brand new official mobile game called Kaohsiung Metro Romance. KRT were looking for opportunities to be innovative in their marketing strategy and introduce a refreshing and fun travel experience to passengers in order to profit and sustain their corporation. Toii proposed the use of AR and location-based technology to come up with a brand new mobile game idea.
My Role
Lead UX Designer / Creative Director
Mar 2016 - Mar. 2018
• Led the meeting with stakeholders to finalize the design and specs
• Created wireframes to communicate the game flow and interaction
• Created prototypes and conducted usability testing
• Managed the project development and product launch
The Ideation
We used card sorting method to helped us brainstorm the ideas for our clients. We narrowed down few keywords: LBS, AR, Task, Metro Station, Collect, Story, KRT girls (character)
https://www.justinmind.com/blog/card-sorting/
We learned that KRT held several anime characters, K.R.T. girls, which already had a significant fan base. We wanted to build the game based on these animated characters in combination with AR technology. The use of location-based technology was to execute the idea of bringing people to KRT stations in person, as this equated bringing in the profit. Thus, we were combining three elements: characters, AR, and location-based services. We came up with an idea similar to Pokémon Go, but with great differences because of the characteristics of the K.R.T girls. We made the game experience similar to reading a light novel; users needed to go from station to station to complete the mission and read the story. This was considered avant-garde gameplay at the time.
Game Flow
Wireframes
The Challenge
We encountered some challenges during the development. The biggest issue is the technical constraint with indoor location tracking. We couldn’t confirm the player was located inside the metro station as most stations are underground. And at the time we can only target players is within 500m of the designated area, but that exceeds most of the station size. So, I came up with the AR Marker idea. This solved our issue with having players be inside the station and actually take the train to play our game.
Improvements/Evolutions
The first attempt of Kaohsiung Metro Company had great success. Right after launching the app, KMT and other cities showed interest in all sorts of collaborations. Thus, we continued to make version 2 of the game and then expanded it to Taipei and Fukuoka, Japan. This time the game extended from Kaohsiung and integrated with local tourist spots, shops, and brands, thus impacting other cities such as Taipei. It went as far as to bring the user overseas to Fukuoka’s biggest shopping mall, Canal City Hakata.
"Metro Romance 2" is an AR geo-based mobile game based on the major cities of Taiwan (Taipei and Kaohsiung) and Japan (Fukuoka). Players get to explore these cities' most famous attractions and start romance interactions with their favorite characters, including some of the most popular Taiwanese virtual characters. The game integrates AR (Augmented Reality) to create a more immersive experience and uses GPS signals to locate players, allowing them to interact with attractions around the cities.
The Product
According to KRT, reports show that the quantity of sales for the one-day pass increased by 300%. What surpassed our expectation was that 10% of the users were from Japan. The product successfully promoted the city and introduced more tourists and revenue. We also created merchandise to make an overall marketing experience which made the product profitable.
- Kaohsiung Metro Romance (version 1) got 5500 downloads
- Metro Romance 2 (version 2) got 11 K downloads