Pulling punters into cross-device gaming
We engineered an immersive, public gaming experience that drew in fans and bystanders alike.
Our Opportunity
Ghost Street had an ‘open studio’ event coming up. We’d been experimenting with a number of small game concepts between projects, and saw our chance to develop one into a full-blown space activation.
Our Challenge
We wanted to engage our guests with a compelling, interactive experience. Ease-of-use was important: visitors needed to be able to drop in and out of the game from their own devices, without having to download an app.
To tick all these boxes, we decided to build a mobile browser-based controller interface.
Services
- Game Development
- Art Direction
- UI & UX Design
Client
Self Directed
Year
2016
Our Solution
Ghost Squadron takes its cue from arcade-style spacies gameplay. To boost our offering, we added a custom physics engine, allowing players to manipulate the environment and navigate their ships through waves of increasingly lethal enemies.
So passers-by could drop straight in, we set up a custom server and designed a game interface that made tutorials unnecessary. We also made sure that the system would dynamically scale Ghost Squadron’s difficulty as each new punter joined the fray.
The Results
Ghost Squadron was a huge hit. Thanks to the game’s easy-access design, hardcore gamers and casual onlookers alike were drawn into the action of our technical showpiece.
As the game’s architects, we won a chance to experiment with gameplay loops and cross-device accessibility for live, multi-user interactive pieces — learnings we’ve since applied across many client projects.