Balloon Popper

Augmented Reality Experience using Vuforia’s Image Tracking System, 2020.

Software: Unity, Blender, Adobe Pr, Vuforia.


What

Introducing Balloon Popper - A Dive into Augmented Reality Gaming

During my journey through the world of game development, I embarked on a fascinating venture—crafting Balloon Popper, an Augmented Reality (AR) game that came to life within Unity, harnessing the capabilities of Vuforia's image tracking system.

Process

Laying the Conceptual Groundwork:

The seeds of innovation were sown in a deceptively simple idea—an AR playground where balloons steal the show. But beneath this simplicity, a meticulous design odyssey unfolded. It was driven by a commitment to creating an engaging AR experience that melds design finesse with immersive gameplay.

Steps to development

  1. Starting with a concept: The idea was simple—create an AR playground with balloons as the focus. But behind this simplicity, a detailed design journey unfolded, merging design and gameplay seamlessly.

  2. Building Mechanics: The blueprint phase turned ideas into reality using Blender. Balloons and pins took shape, sticking to the minimalistic game design approach.

  3. Coding Interactions:

  • Scoring mechanism

  • Countdown timer

  • Balloon-popping collisions

  • Balloon spawning

  • Restart functionality

  • Pause button for strategic moments

The Final Result

The player opens the screen of the smartphone and at the press of the start button, many colorful balloons are going to appear on the screen. The balloons are floating up and down in the space where the player is currently.

The goal of the game is to pop all the balloons that appear on the screen as fast as possible. The game has a timer that stops as soon as all the balloons are popped. The better the player becomes the lesser time he/she will need to pop all the balloons.

In order to pop the balloons, the player must scan the target image which is currently an Einstein image. The player can only pop the balloons using the pin that appears via the target image.

Additional effects include:

  • a popping sound every time a balloon gets popped,

  • a particle effect every time a balloon gets popped.

The game consists of three buttons:

  • Start: Starts the timer. The balloons appear on the screen upon first pressing start, if the timer is on pause the start button will make the timer work again where it was left before the pause.

  • Restart: Restart a brand-new game.

  • Pause: Pauses the timer.

For this game, I designed two 3D models in Blender. One is a push pin to use for popping the balloons and the latter is a balloon that is going to fill the screen of the player's phone and will be floating up and down. (equivalent photos of the models are in the media library).

Takeaway

Lessons Learned

Reflection brought insights:

  • Refine the pause button's function

  • Design for adaptability

  • Reimagine pin usage for better gameplay

Balloon Popper isn't just a game; it's an exploration of AR's potential. As I navigated design, code, and creativity, new horizons opened.