Expanding collaboration to bring Monsarrat's AR game to GDC
Monsarrat spearheads the development of AR games that encourage players to move and explore in the real world. Collaborating with Monsarrat and XREAL, our team ported a mobile AR game to the XREAL Light glasses and created an immersive augmented reality experience for players. Working around a tight deadline, we managed to adapt the game to the new device and launch a PoC successfully for the 2024 Game Developers Conference.
We’ve been consulting and supporting development work across different areas of Monsarrat’s AR gaming ecosystem for three years now. So when the company partnered with XREAL to port their AR game to XREAL’s augmented reality glasses in time for GDC 2024, Monsarrat teamed up with us again.
The primary challenge was to adapt the game from a mobile format to the AR glasses without compromising the graphical quality or user experience. This required a detailed analysis of game interactions and a strategic approach to ensure that the game worked seamlessly on the AR glasses. Since the project started before the newest Air 2 Ultra was released, we worked on the SDK with access only to XREAL's older model: Light. This was another challenge.
The project was a careful balancing act of picking things to port to meet the deadline and decrease the possibility of bugs as much as possible.
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Scope of Work
Since the development of augmented reality games for the mobile and for the glasses is different across many areas, we had to introduce a few technical changes in the game for XREAL’s glasses to ensure maximum compatibility and user experience.
Adapting User Interface
Shifting from fixed screen-space UI elements to dynamic, floating UI that moves with the player’s field of view, enhancing the sense of immersion.
Integrating XREAL SLAM
Replacing the original Unity's AR Foundation SLAM implementation with XREAL's
Modifying SDK
Adjusting XREAL’s SDK to correctly handle controller orientation to implement certain features like virtual world rotation for playing in small spaces.
Solution
Given the project's tight deadline, we prioritized elements that maximized player immersion and comfort. This included:
- Interactions — adjusting game interactions to be natural and intuitive through the AR glasses, moving away from the touch screen-based to controller-based interactions.
- Controller integration — combining mobile and glasses controls to enhance the physical interaction with the game.
- Graphics and performance — optimizing high-quality graphics to ensure smooth framerate with stereo rendering on XREAL Light glasses.
When porting AR games from mobile phones to headsets or AR glasses, the key aspect to analyze in depth is the way the game world is presented determines interactions, and as such has a huge impact on the game experience.
The delivery time was very short and we had to make strategic decisions as to which elements to port to the glasses and which could stay on the mobile phone — all that with the most emphasis put on the player’s experience and comfort in exploring the storyline.
Successful Showcase at GDC 2024
The adapted game was successfully showcased at GDC 2024, receiving positive feedback for its innovative use of AR technology and the integration of mobile and AR controls.
The team at XREAL was also impressed after playing the game on the XREAL Light glasses:
'Wow, it's magic! [...] We love it."
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"As a CEO who previously founded a division of Warner Bros, I’m skeptical of consultants and tough on results. But I was wowed by nomtek’s instant grasp of our goals, their mastery of the technology and marketplace, and their best-in-the-industry communication and transparency."
Johnny Monsarrat, CEO & Founder of Monsarrat
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