OVERVIEW

 Our project, "Huh!? I’ve Been Hired By Alien Researchers", is an AR Language learning world exploration game meant to motivate users to one of the most tedious parts of language learning, memorizing vocabulary. Players are introduced to the ICRC, the Interplanetary Communications Research Company whose aim is to solve language barrier problems by studying how human brains memorize words. Dr. Zero, their boss, offers you a job to help them!

AWARD

 We were the grand prize winner of the Niantic Lightship Real-World AR Challenge 2023!

MY ROLE

Project Management

 Leading our team as the project manager, I assumed various responsibilities, including overseeing deadlines and milestones, coordinating team meetings, allocating tasks, and ensuring the completion of the project before the deadline. Beyond this, I actively contributed to the project's conceptualization, guiding its direction from the initial idea. Additionally, I provided support to my teammates in strategic decision-making and coding, fostering a collaborative environment that propelled the project forward.

Development

  I took a developmental role in enhancing our application's functionality by implementing the dynamic generation of waypoints on the map and devising algorithms to strategically position them near the user. Furthermore, I worked on creating a pedometer, as well as collaborated on the occlusion and meshing aspects of the app. Lastly, I coded the contact book and created a top-down dissolve shader for enhanced visual appeal.

3D Modeling/Creative Direction

 In addition to my technical contributions, I was entirely in charge of our app's concept and design, including 2D, 3D, and UX/UI assets. I 3D modeled some of the characters as well as every other 3D asset in our app, textured them, and ensured their optimization for AR. Furthermore, I used Mixamo to animate and rig our characters to life. Moreover, I created all 2D materials, write-ups, and produced a trailer to showcase this application’s features.

DEVELOPMENT STACK

• Unity/C#
• Niantic ARDK 3.0
• Blender
• Mixamo
• Figma
• Procreate
• Adobe Premire Pro

DETAILS

  This project currently utilizes VPS, Depth Occlusion, and Meshing from ARDK 3.0. One of the inspirations for our application was the multitude of studies on memory retention ability during exercise. After reading and cross-referencing numerous papers, similar conclusions have been drawn: information retention is increased during light to moderate aerobic exercise. Adding to this, there are also studies about the positive correlation of spacing out memorization between different sessions. Taking these ideas and world exploration into account, we were inspired to create an application for memorizing foreign vocabulary while walking from place to place, aiming for better word retention.

Check out our official submission here!

Project Trailer