Magic Door Adventures
AR Game Design
UI / UXFor Magic Door Adventures, our team at Neo Pangea set out to create a unique AR experience that would allow players to open doors to explorable worlds right within the comfort of their home. As the project lead and creative director, I worked closely with our partners at Disney and our team at Neo to create worlds that were true to their history, and create an awe-inspiring game that allows players to explore, find and collect objects, and revisit those objects int heir own trophy room.
The UI of this game allows for some standard UI/UX implementations, but leaning into AR’s capabilities allowed for a larger hands off approach, giving the player the ability to engage and explore simply by moving around.
Client: Disney | Agency: Neo Pangea
Role: Project Lead | Lead Visual Design | Interactive / Product Design | Illustration | Motion Design | Animation
Creating AR PortalsI worked closely with our 3D designer to identify interactive objects, characters, and layouts that stayed true to the worlds we were taking the players into, but also working within the confines of the AR limitations. Each world offers a unique space to explore, from Alice’s Bakery, to an underwater realm.
3D designs by Pascal Chaumette
From the moment you drop a door and enter, you immerse yourself into a fully virtual environment with the magic of AR. Even while fully immersed, you can turn around and peer back through the portal to see the real world still there. This implementation allowed a partnership with Disney that has led to the creation of six unique worlds across 4 IP’s.
Designing the WorldsFor each world, I explored what made the IP we were highlighting special. This would entail of alist of collectable objects, places to hide those objects, as well as a series of “Surprise & Delight” moment, where we could highlight something truly special from each world.
Part of what makes each IP special is the visual style in which is is represented. In some cases, I would design the aesthetics based on the IP it is derived from, whether that is cartoony CG characters, to something much more gritty and illustrative.
The design of the UI system also had to account for all the various styles, from Star Wars to Moon Girl.
Highlighting IdentityGiving each world its own identity was a fun challenge whenever a new IP was introduced. Part of that creative identity was the door that would be the portal to each of these worlds. I wanted to create a system where the door reflected the world, the story and the excitement of exploring these places.
