Judges' Comments
Evie Powell, Niantic Staff Software Engineer:
"This is really cute! I love how it engages non players in an interesting way thats not too invasive on the passersby. Its a fun game that reminds me of the childhood games I would play where I'd count how many people stepped on the sidewalk cracks. I think kids will love it. Fits very well with the theme. I imagine a scoreboard, or some type of deeper gameplay in this games future. Or a game where you have to protect little characters trying to cross the area from the kicks of non players. There are a ton of possibilities here to make it more interactive. Or leaving it as a toy with more effects could possibly be interesting as well! Great job!"
Diego Aguirre, Lightship Leader:
"Amazing approach, I need to say it looks fun. I have a few thoughts I want to share. The projects are super good, I could see how you made use of AR to augmente the world by putting people in the center of the experience! It would have been nice if the people could engage more with the app rather than be just passive actors, they could be more active actors in a sense of making them aware of the things they are doing in the AR experience. I loved how people were able to kick the ball and also the shaders on top of the segmentation. Overall this is a beautiful, fun and interesting project, really well made. Many details like the music from the sfx when spawning the soccer ball and also the pop sound once the ball was clicked, made the experience more artistic, beautiful and also we could see the love and care into those subtle details. I think there was an innovation here, of not only using segmentation but also making a new way to have a foot collider that would allow the people to kick the ball, that was a nice detail! Great work! From the technical side, Sometimes it is tricky to combine the different capabilities but you nail it like a pro! Especially when creating something new, we often need to find creative ways to manifest the creative vision we have. I believe here the foot tracking / collider was a nice touch, I'm not sure how it was achieved but it works really well into the game mechanics. Prototyping and combining visuals with capabilities is sometimes a buggy road. Be aware that innovating always comes with the risk of failing. If you ever wondered how to create what you envision but don't know how. I would advise asking in the community. I wish you a great journey of passing from prototype to published app. I think that with more hours invested into this project you could have a pretty fun, engaging and awesome app! Keep it up, this prototype looks amazing! I love this project but it was still missing something to have everything to be the winner. Goods: Innovation in terms of foot tracking. Cons: People were the center of the experience but not in a meaningful way, people weren't aware they were part of the AR experience."