ABOUT THE PROJECT
The video game “Space Invaders” is turning 45, and to celebrate, Taito and Google are teaming up to create a new immersive AR game, where you can defend the Earth from your neighborhood.
'SPACE INVADERS: World Defence' allows players to turn local neighbourhoods into digital playgrounds and compete for the highest score
ABOUT THE ROLE
Working closely with the development team and the Game Designer, I developed and defined the whole UX for this experience. Given the novelty of the technology, we had to work around some technical constraints and limitations, that were solved using narrative techniques in order to provide a seamless experience. The main tasks included defining the user flows based on the GDD as well as designing the wireframes alongside the Game Designer.
ROLE
Lead UX Designer
CREDITS
Unit9
SPACE INVADERS: World Defense is an immersive mobile game that combines augmented reality and 3D gameplay to turn the world into a digital playground. It’s an exciting evolution of the classic franchise on a new platform, blending retro 8-bit visuals with modern technology. Powered by Google’s ARCore and Geospatial API, it’s inspired by the original gameplay where players must defend the Earth from SPACE INVADERS – but this time in their local neighbourhoods in augmented reality.
SPACE INVADERS: World Defense allows players to activate two different play modes. By switching from World Dimension to Invaders Dimension, players can access a pure digital 3D level, transitioning from the real world via a portal. This parallel digital environment is dynamically generated based on their surroundings, allowing players to complete missions in a fully virtual 3D Invader world as well as their real world AR view.The new mobile game draws inspiration from the original arcade version, whilst including exciting additions like new weapons, music, sound effects and power-ups. We also used OpenWeather API to design levels based on a player’s current conditions, including time of day, temperature, and weather. The result was a fully contextual, highly engaging and personalised immersive experience.
