Chicken vs Alien

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  Prot-egg them all !

Inspiration

We worked hard to design and build an experience that has both the benefits of an innovative multiplayer game while offering a unique and immersive experience to each user. To sublimate the concept of AR in this experience, we really wanted to transform the users’ environment and transport them into the fantasy world of Chicken vs Alien. Our lens uses the well known codes of video games, like the introduction of the game, the tutorial screens, the lobby and the leaderboard.

What it does

In this multiplayer game, the users embody a group of chicken magicians whose chicken coop is attacked by aliens coming to steal their magic eggs! The objective is to destroy the UFOs before the eggs disappear by using their hand to shoot magic balls. The game ends when the players have managed to oust all the UFOS or when the aliens have managed to steal all the eggs to cook themselves a delicious omelette.

How we built it

The concept was first laid out during a creative design phase, allowing us to define the storytelling and the game mechanics. Once the concept was validated, we designed all the assets in 3D and used the Snap connected lens system to make the lens accessible in multiplayer mode. Development was the longest part of the project, to integrate all the elements and set up the gameplay. To manage this result, we combined several lens features, such as hand tracking, connected lens, and head tracking for the try-on of the wizard hat at the beginning of the experience. Finally, our sound designer created a unique and spatialized sound environment inspired by a series from the 80s.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge of this game is to allow a maximum number of players to have fun together, whether they are close or far from each other, all in real time, and to share game moments together in cooperation while keeping a notion of competition with the scores and to allow the user to be immersed as much as possible in this experience by offering a game mechanic as AR friendly as possible. That’s why we decided to use the hand as a trigger acting as a weapon in the game. Another challenge was to keep the same quality of experience no matter the number of players. We had to set up a system to adapt the number of eggs and UFOs according to the number of players.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We are also proud to offer a game experience that can be played by two or twenty people. We are quite satisfied that we were able to use the hand recognition as a trigger to best interact with the experience. In our opinion, hand segmentation provides a more natural and intuitive gaming experience without the need for complex gestures or special devices.perience without requiring complex gestures or specific devices. If it is a multiplayer game, we also wanted to add a touch of competition to increase the adrenaline between players. So we introduced a leaderboard at the end of the game, where you can find out who was the best chicken defender of the henhouse.

What we learned

We learned to use the hand as both a trigger and a weapon. We also learned how to optimize the lens to make it playable with more than 10 players.

What’s next for Chicken vs Alien

Our ambition was to create a true AR multiplayer game that could offer a unique and immersive experience to many players whose mechanics could be adapted in the future according to the needs and desires of any brand.

Built With

• 2d
• 3d
• connectedlens
• javascript
• lens
• lenscloud
• particles
• sound