Play to Pay – Anas Raza

Play 2 Pay

A location-based AR game that requires players to move around in the physical space to collect virtual coins

Retail Store Game

Narrative

The game provides digital coins as an incentive to roam in the store and spend more time in the store. This game uses score board to increase curiosity in potential players to enquire about the game and engage in it. The multiplayer aspect of the game add the element of competition and increases the value of the incentive, motivating them to collect more coins. It then nudges players towards final purchase by luring them with the option to redeem the digital coins for their in store purchases.

The Game

The game is a location-based and multiplayer coin collection AR experience designed for mobile phone devices. It uses Vuforia Area Target capabilities to place game object on a precise location. Vuforia Area Target create a 3D scan of the environment to make sense of the surroundings when placing 3D object. Using this technique the game places virtual coins in the environment. The coin placement is strategic to its juxtaposition with promotional sales banner that are designed for product promotional purposes. This strategy is used with the intention that player will notice the promotional banner out of curiosity that the banner may have information regarding gameplay. The assumption is that the placement of the promotional content closer to game object makes the promotional content more noticeable which otherwise goes unnoticed.

To find the coins, players must physically navigate their environment and tap on virtual coins to collect them. Each game session has a limited number of coins. Each player can see how many coins has been collected and how many coins are left to be collected. As part of the multiplayer aspect, players can also see the count of other online players in real-time. The game concludes when all coins have been collected. At the end of the game, the winner is announced, and they can utilize the accumulated coins to claim a gift pack.

1. Start the Game

Geek View

The game utilizes Unity Photon Networking to enable multiplayer functionality. It first checks if a game session has already started; if not, it initiates the game by creating and joining a virtual room.

2. Enter Name

Geek View

The game app uses PhotonPUN to update all game states, including players’ names and coin counts. At this point, the app takes the name from the text field and associates it with the player ‘nickname’ attribute of PhotonPUN networking.

3. Gameplay

Geek View

This is the main scene where the gameplay takes place. The game app employs Vuforia’s Area Target feature to recognize the physical environment and position 3D objects accordingly. A 3D scan of the physical space is needed during development for accurate content placement. In this scene, players must physically move around the area and tap on coins to collect them. The game uses the Ray Hit method to detect which coin is tapped and then utilizes the PhotonRPC method to notify all game instances to remove the coin from the screen, ensuring no other players can collect the same coin.

4. Winner

Geek View

When a coin is tapped, the app updates the player’s score via PhotonPun, which includes refreshing the UI across all player instances and the scoreboard. Each time a coin is tapped, the server checks for remaining coins and identifies the player with the highest coin count. If no coins are left, the game concludes, and the winner is announced. The winner is then prompted with a screen to redeem the coins, which can be used for purchases in the store.

5. Score Board

Geek View

The scoreboard is another instance of the game that lists all online players and their accumulated scores, including the remaining coins and any freebies in the gameplay. It uses PhotonPUN to display this information via custom properties. Before initializing the game instance, the game engine uses PhotonPUN to set custom properties for each player, including total score, freebie count, total coins, and remaining coins. This scoreboard strategy is inspired by conventional game studies, which indicate that scoreboards in a multiplayer setting act as an invitation to attract more players.

Play 2 Pay

Narrative

The Game

1. Start the Game

2. Enter Name

3. Gameplay

4. Winner

5. Score Board

Web Development