Sonny Kim - Minesweeper AR MVP

AR Minesweeper MVP

A school project where the main goal was to design an augmented reality minimal-viable-product for a mobile phone

Problem Statement

Video games despite some people’s beliefs can provide numerous benefits, with studies showing cognitive benefits such as gamers who play shooting games have faster and more accurate attention allocation versus the control group. However, for many individuals AR/VR devices that allow users to play AR/VR video games can be too expensive with the Hololens2, a mixed reality device costing 3,500 USD. Hence, this project aims to create an AR game that is easily accessible for all users by allowing users to play with their smartphones which is a lot easier to access for users.

Define

Hence, the goals for this project was:

1: Create a fun, immersive game utilizing AR
2: Must be able to perform on an actual phone without crashing or significant lag
3: Include “features” present in other video games such as being able to restart
4: Must play like an actual game, should have a clear win and lose scenario

An image of a storyboard of my initial definition/vision for this project's minimal viable product (a very similar one was also creaed but for VR).

Design

Numerous iterations and edits have been made throughout the design process for this project.

Initially this project aimed to create a multi-user video game experience, however after looking the documentation and experimenting with previous drafts I realized that in the given timeframe it would not be possible to utilize this component.

An image of one my initial VR design iterations of a multi-player checkers minimal viable product.

One of the most pivotal design decisions that was made after iterating/experimenting with multiple designs is to create an augmented reality application instead of a virtual reality application. Initially there was some question on whether a virtual reality component should be prioritized but an augmented reality seemed more appropriate as the target user group are those with mobile phones - implementing a VR solution through mobile (e.g. Google cardboard) and not as intutiive user-controls (e.g. gaze) could impede with the user experience.

An image of one my initial VR design iterations of the minesweeper minimal viable product.

I decided to design a minimal-viable-product AR minesweeper game. I then interated through multiple designs making changes due to various reasons such as changing 3-D models to improve performance, reducing the opacity of the tiles and the scale of the application to improve the user's immersion, and adding instruction panels and hover interactivity to provide signifers to the user.

Deliver

After numerous iterations and design changes, a final minimal-viable-product AR minesweeper game was created.

If a user hovers over a tile, the tile changes color to allow the user to better identify which tile is being "selected". To select the tile, users can tap on their phones.

A video showing how the minesweepeer tiles change color if a user hovers over it and reveals the tile's number if clicked on.

Another feature is the "Show Answers" button will allow the user to see the "answers" on the board, uncovering the tiles. Users can also then click on the restart button to re-start without refreshing the browser.

A video showing how the minesweeper answers are shown.

Lastly, if a user unfortunately taps on a tile with a bomb, the tile will explode, triggering an explosion animation and an explosion sound effect as well. A "You Lose GG" panel appears as well. Users will also get a "You Win!" panel if they win as well.

A video showing the minesweeper explosion animation and the reset button mentioned prior.