TOWER DESTROYER

 

Game Concept:

Phone/tablet AR(Augmented Reality) game where the player places physical "markers" which appear as in-game cannons in order to destroy a tower made of irregularly shaped bricks in order to do as much damage as possible.

 

Role:

Co-designer and lead artist, team of three

 

Process:

Low-polygon 3d graphics modelled in Modo 401 and Maya, imported to Unity game engine using Qualcomm's QCAR (now Vuforia) AR extensions; exported to Android devices.

 

Features:

AR gameplay featuring direct, physical interaction with the "cannons", Colorful Mesoamerican-inspired graphics, challenges including the need to hit switches and fire multiple cannons, and aim past moving shields and other barriers. Increasingly complex towers require planning and puzzle-solving.

 

Purpose:

Created at Georgia Tech's Augmented Reality lab, Tower Destroyer was my first experience designing 3D graphics for a mobile app, as well as my first exposure to AR. As with all of the lab's projects, the main purpose was to explore the unique gameplay possibilities created by AR; therefore the principal goal was to create a fun experience that would be hard, if not impossible, to emulate without using AR.

 

Post-Mortem:

Tower Destroyer was an important milestone in my career at SCAD. It was my first collaboration with students from Georgia Tech and led to my part-time employment there; it also drew the attention of Sony's mobile division which lent the lab an Xperia Play phone several months before its market release so that we could develop specific controls for it. It also served as my first experience with AR, and lessons learned in this project would greatly influence the development of Citadel Omega and Alcazar.