Deep Sea Discovery
A location-based game to encourage museum exploration and teach people about the sea
Role: Lead Designer
Engine: Unity
Platforms: PC
Team Size: 5+
Deep Sea Discovery is a location-based augmented reality game that encouraged museum exploration and educated on deep sea creatures.
As the player moves closer to the beacon with their mobile device, the meter tells them how close they are to the creature. If the player is too close in the physical space, the creature may run away depending on the level of the creature and player.
Using BLE iBeacons to track the location and send push notifications to a mobile device, players explore the physical space of the Orlando Science Center in order to collect creatures, learn about different sea zones, and earn badges. The data collected was useful to analyze the travel patterns of visitors at the museum.
Contributions
Design Leadership - Both virtual and physical space design were parts of this project. My main contribution was on the overall user flow through the experience. I worked with the team on aesthetic and visuals, user interface design, system design and content of the creatures and their levels and stats, written content, and design of the physical location of spawn points.
Project Management - I worked with the development team to track progress and project planning, as well as organization of the assets and source control. I planned and implemented the database and data collection using PHP.
Stakeholder Management - Communicated schedules and progress with the Orlando Science Museum, planned and coordinated the iBeacon installation in the physical space, and implemented client feedback in the experience.
Physical Space
The game was included in the Otronicon 2016 event app, and the physical installation was located at the Orlando Science Center.
Each level has 8-10 beacons installed on a level, the main event triggers for interaction with each creature. Entry to the building is located on level 2, so the tutorial point is installed at that point, and lower level creatures are located on the top level, or building level 4.
Below shows a diagram of the science center’s building level 1 where we installed beacons.
