VR CASE STUDY
NOKIA BELL LABS
DRAW & CODE’S LBE DESIGNERS CREATED TWO EXPERIENCES IN A CUSTOM HARDWARE CONFIGURATION FOR THE UNIQUE SETTING OF THE NOKIA MWC STAND.
[2017]
[VR]
To highlight Nokia’s commitment to the celebrated US-based Bell Labs, the beloved technology brand wanted to create an engaging visitor experience for Barcelona’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) – one of the world’s most essential tech events. Draw & Code’s were tasked with creating two video game experiences within a custom Igloo Vision projection dome. Both had to be intuitive and had to foster engagement between players.
Nokia Bell Labs were looking for engagement and immersion but with the throughput concerns of an intense, large-scale event like MWC, VR headsets were not the correct solution. Instead, a purpose-built Igloo shared-VR space and bespoke wrist-mounted wearable controllers had to be developed. Draw & Code’s LBE designers set about creating two experiences in a custom hardware configuration for the unique setting of the Nokia MWC stand.
Two games, lightly inspired by the history of Nokia and Bell Labs, were developed. One was an endless runner with a twist – the player had to move their body to dodge obstacles. This was thanks to the intuitive wearable controller, developed with the boffins at Nokia Bell Labs themselves.
If the endless runner was about getting people up, moving and bringing on a much needed energy boost after a day trawling the show-floor, the second game was designed to foster collaboration and communication. For this, two players were guided to different parts of the immersive environment and both performed very different roles.
Taking inspiration from the bridge in Star Trek – or more specifically the traditional bomber aircraft-style layout of Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon with a pilot at the front and a gunner at the rear – players were thrust into an asteroid field as one player took the spaceship through an asteroid field while the other had to fend off pursuing ship
As ever, Draw & Code were developing the games in Unity, but with Igloo Vision’s proprietary display management software and also Nokia Bell Lab’s prototype wearable controllers, there was considerable effort from all three organisations to make sure the technology integrations worked perfectly at the show.
The two video game experiences were launched at MWC to a delighted audience of the great and the good of the technology world. Tens of thousands of visitors were drawn to the Nokia stand, that appeared to only be beaten in terms of visitor numbers by the gargantuan presence of Google’s Android village.
The aim of the LBE designers was that the shared experience would allow delegates to game together and engage with the innovations of Nokia Bell Labs – an aim that was well and truly fulfilled.
The endless runner got people smiling and moving, something that was needed after a serious day of networking, while the space game led to plenty of urgency, excitement and some very vocal collaborative play!