First and Last Names
Manolis Tsotros

Link to Demo Video (YouTube or Vimeo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE8Kkv0TaRg

Briefly describe your project
A fun and interactive way to spend time outdoors! Play hide and seek with your smartphone with virtual characters in the nearby park. Choose to play as the hider or as the seeker. The virtual characters are your friends and are intelligent enough to hide behind trees, bushes, and other objects within the play area. Use your device's camera to locate them before the time limit. Once you find them, run as fast as you can to the "Base" before they get there first! Find and beat to the "Base" all of them to win. And then, be yourself a hider, hide from the virtual seeker and stay hidden for as long as it is required (time limit), to win the round.

How did you innovate on this product (VPS/ARDK features)?
• VPS is combined with Gameboard mechanics to achieve navigation and path finding. The entire park is a navigable area by the virtual ‘players’ • Gameboard.FindRandomPosition() dynamically discovers real-geometry hideouts for the hiders, i.e. spots that the player camera can't see • A unique VPS occlusion approach: private scans are used as anchors and occlude objects by their depth shader. This way, even far away geometry can be used as a hideout. VPS’s SLAM approach, with its centimeter accuracy, can help achieve overlaying on top of real geometry. • Intelligent avatars find their way around the localization point which is used as the entire play area.

How did you use Remote Authoring or Maps Beta? (Optional)
The entire app was made in the Remote Authoring scene and was initially tested with private scans at home. When everything was working as expected (both in Editor and in Build), I did a couple of visits to the nearby park.

How does it speak to Niantic's mission? (Optional)
This is a fun and interactive way to spend time outdoors. The app is suitable to children. It encourages them to play a very popular kids’ game. Hide & Seek can help children to develop their problem-solving skills, as they have to think about where to hide and how to find their opponents. Additionally, it can help to improve children's social skills, as it requires them to communicate and cooperate with the virtual counterparts in order to play the game. Hide & Seek can also promote physical activity: run faster than your virtual friends to get to the “Base” first.

How complete is your project? (Optional)
All that is shown in the video works as expected. UI/UX, original music for the game (by my son), sound fx, 3d models, are all there already. In terms of gameplay, you either play against time or you must run faster than your opponents. You can be either a Hider or a Seeker. Needs further polishing and further gameplay work on the ‘Hider’ part.