Super Mario AR demo by Stuart Langfield.
The circular format in this demo looks really interesting, Stuart. How did you come up with this?
“ Figuring out a good format was a big challenge, since I was taking a 2D game and applying it to physical 3D space. I first built in a traditional left to right 2D platformer style, but during testing I realized the level was becoming massive. It would be very hard to place in a physical environment whilst retaining a sense of scale. It also involved a lot of walking. So it was becoming hard to keep up with Mario!
After some brainstorming I decided to try a circular format. To test this out I had to rebuild Mario’s movement controllers so that he was fixed to a specific circumference. I had to play with the scale of the scene, so that the user wasn’t rotating their body too quickly and becoming dizzy. I’ve had a few people test the prototype at different stages and the reactions have been generally positive, although it always took them a few minutes to get used to the controls and the format. ”