First and Last Names
Thomas Ortega ll, Anthony Tanaka

Link to Demo Video (YouTube or Vimeo)
https://vimeo.com/787679239

Briefly describe your project
A Lightship adventure taking place in Central Park. This is the Central Park Edition, that we’re using as a proof of concept. The purposes are as follows: 1) Foster Happiness-Turn any park into the happiest place on earth 2)Have Adventures-Fun in the outside world with family, friends and our lovable characters 3)Make Memories-We love to remember the good times, let’s make more good times

How did you innovate on this product (VPS/ARDK features)?
VPS is key to the project. Without it, it’s not possible. Our whole premise is to put our original characters in the coolest spots that exist in the world. We not only read all the source code, but also modify it to be able to create our adventures. We love that every feature we want to build winds up being a feature of the Lightship ARDK. It's a wonderful partnership.

How did you use Remote Authoring or Maps Beta? (Optional)
We use both. We use maps to create a fun, lively, interactive map to present players with options on where to go and interact with certain characters. Remote authoring is how we place our spikes (theater speak for cues to help the actors know where to stand on stage). We use those in conjunction with gameboard to help direct our characters in the game. Sorry, the content is NYC specific at the moment. We do want to build adventures in SF's Golden Gate Park and in the Seattle Center.

How does it speak to Niantic's mission? (Optional)
It is one and the same. We are encouraging people to get out and explore all the cool parks around them and meet new “friends”, our lovable characters.

How complete is your project? (Optional)
It has a very, very solid base. We also have a very streamlined process that enables us to add new characters and interactions in about 2 weeks. It has a native HUD (i.e. in SwiftUI, etc), and uses Unity only for the Lightship specific stuff. This is so we can support HMDs without much rework, because mobile devices and HMDs will require very different approaches to HUD items. We are also building an “actor” framework atop of Lightship ARDK to streamline the spike, character and ARDK creation process