WILDCARD AR

Reimagining a classic card gaming in AR, turning your surroundings into an interactive game space where players draw, play, stack, and unleash wild moves through Snap Spectacles.

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WILDCARD

Inspiration

Card games have always brought people together, but their playing space has barely changed. We wanted to challenge that. What if your next card game didn't need a phone, a screen, or even a physical table? What if the game existed right in front of you?

That idea became WILDCARD: a familiar card-game experience reimagined for augmented reality.

What it does

WILDCARD transforms the player's view into an interactive AR card table through Snap Spectacles. Players can see their hand, interact with virtual cards, and play against an automated opponent.

The experience explores spatial card layouts, card-based interactions, wild-card color selection, and opponent actions such as drawing four cards. Rather than simply placing a flat game interface in the player's view, WILDCARD experiments with making the game itself feel present in the surrounding space.

How we built it

We built WILDCARD in Lens Studio using TypeScript, Spectacles Interaction Kit, and SpectaclesUIKit. We used the Devpost Learn skill pack to guide our planning and CLAD-assisted development workflow to build the Lens.

A key part of the implementation was separating game logic from visual presentation. Card actions need to update the actual game state, while animations communicate those changes to the player.

Challenges we ran into

Designing for augmented reality introduced challenges that traditional card games don't have. Cards need to remain readable, layouts must adapt to different hand sizes, and interactions must feel intuitive in a spatial environment.

We also had to think carefully about keeping game state consistent with visual feedback. For example, a +4 action should actually update the opponent's hand by four cards, not merely display an animation.

What we learned

Building WILDCARD changed how we think about interfaces. On a conventional screen, the interface occupies a fixed rectangle. In AR, the interface becomes part of the player's environment.

We learned to consider spatial readability, interaction distance, adaptive layouts, and the relationship between game logic and visual feedback. Most importantly, we discovered how even a familiar game can become an interesting design challenge when you change the medium.

Built With

  • augmented
  • interaction
  • kit
  • lens
  • reality
  • snap
  • spectacles
  • spectaclesuikit
  • studio
  • typescript
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