Shapes cARd game

Shapes cARd game is a prototype for testing multiple Image Detection using AR. Tired of the debate between physical or virtual trading card games, we decided to take it a step further and make a game that makes use of both.

Thanks to AR, we could easily display those epic battles we imagine when playing with our cards, mixing the UI with the real world, making it even more immersive for the players!

We always had our eye on AR, because we think that it can be used to make new experiences that go beyond both realities. We don't need to confine our players to sitting on a screen because we can motivate them to go and play, both indoors and outdoors, by improving their world through AR experiences!

The theme for Niantic's jam was "Something new" so we thought this vision of making an hybrid trading card game, where one would need to get real cards to not lose the trading and collectible aspect, but having all the advantages of a virtual game was the way to go.

We designed three characters, modelling them from scratch, animated them, and then made some custom cards for each. After that we could use Unity to detect each card and assign them the right model.

Each character has two different attacks, and each attack has a dice tied to it, meaning that we can play it safe or go all or nothing. They also have elements, so you need to thread carefully!

Players take turns one after the other until one of them falls. If the player wins,  it recovers HP and goes to a new enemy. We went with an AI for the opponent due to the time constraint, but for a full fledged game, one could implement AR network features for two simultaneous players.

We share Niantic's vision of a real world metaverse through AR, as both realities compliment each other to bring the best out of them, so we couldn't let this chance slip.