Unforgivable: Eliza
Toii is a virtual gaming lab focused on integrating an augmented reality (AR) experience and location-based service with mobile gaming. Toii's aim is to gamify people’s travel experiences while presenting them with useful and meaningful information. Thus we came up with the project “Unforgivable: Eliza”, a detective game integrated with AR and LBS. Players explore locations in both New York City and Taipei City, either virtually or physically, to start the detective type of game play. The story was written by the award-winning writer Ed Lin, a famous detective and thriller novelist; to read the story and resolve the puzzle, you must follow the instructions and wander around the cities.
My Role
Lead UX Designer:
I created wireframes and prototypes. I also worked closely with the game designer to make the gamification and user experience smooth and intuitive.
Project Manager:
I worked alongside developers to provide them with specs and help remove blockers during development. I led every design and development meeting and we were able to ship the product in a timely manner.
Duration: June 2017 - Feb. 2018
Ideation
This project started in 2017, at a time when AR technology was blooming in mobile games. We pitched the core idea of the game to our client as telling the story of Taiwan to western audiences. We wanted to create a new way to tell a story and interact with players. It is quite difficult to adapt a novel into a mobile game; we had to work closely with Ed Lin, the writer, but not so close that we stifled his creativity. Besides the story itself, integrating 2D art with augmented reality was less common at the time. Thus it was challenging for our team, especially the designers and developers, to create this product.
Wireframe
Game Flow
The game experience and how to proceed with the story in an intriguing way was our biggest challenge. As this game play concept was rather new at the time, we didn't have much in the way of a reference. Thus, the game flow was original. We did a lot of user testing and introduced this new type of mobile game to audiences at any sort of exhibition during the early development phase.
The Challenge
Besides the story itself, the integration of 2D art with augmented reality was not common at the time. This made it challenging for our team, especially designers and developers, to create this product.
The location-based technology was also another challenge as we used a third-party map service which would be difficult to use while meeting our ideal interface. Our resources were limited and we did not have the capacity to build our own map service. Furthermore, the locations were across 2 countries which added another level of difficulty. Testing and making sure we picked a safe (considering) location for the user to do their mission was important. This meant that we tested both countries in person and picked the best location. Luckily we were able to collaborate with the local store as our designated location in the game; we received funding from them as our game would help them with public impressions and marketing.
The Solutions
We used Mapbox as the map service and customized the map UI; that solved our issue for the map system. By customizing our own interface on the map, we were able to integrate the map into our game with a more consistent experience.
We designed the mailbox (notification) feature to better lead and provide clues to players, enabling them to proceed the game.
We also came up with the idea of buying a ticket to "virtually" visit the location if the user cannot physically be there to check in and unveil the storyline. To get this ticket the user could either purchase it via the app or use a pedometer to track their number of steps and then redeem tickets. This was because the concept of the AR + LBS game was to urge the user outdoors to explore the cities.
The Product
The game launched in Feb. 2018 available for both iOS and Android.