LEGO: Hidden Side
LEGO Hidden Side was the most unconventional project I ever worked on, and also my favorite. It was an officially licensed LEGO project published by them and developed by a small team at Kung Fu Factory. It was an AR project where the player would investigate a physical LEGO set to find and catch ghosts haunting the sets. I have loved LEGO all my life and so this project was a dream come true for me. Furthermore, I was given a significant leadership role in this project and so I had a hand in all aspects of this game, designing in both the physical and virtual space. I got to work closely with the executives at LEGO and I even had a hand in designing some of the physical sets that they released. We launched 3 waves of physical sets, each with their own AR gameplay, and a fully fledged multiplayer online mode that utilized AR.
Set Design
The way the game worked was the player would scan the physical LEGO sets with their phone to create a virtual AR environment around them. Interacting with the physical set or the virtual environment would cause changes in the scene and unleash ghosts for the player to catch. I was the head of AR game design so one of my roles was to work with the LEGO master builders to design the physical structure of the set, and to place detectable switches that the phone could recognize. I completely designed the haunted schoolhouse set so that it would transform into a monster and the phone could detect that change in game.
AR Gameplay Design
The core gameplay loop revolved around the player investigating the set in the physical and virtual space. Interacting with “haunted” points on the set would cause changes and unleash the ghosts for the player to catch. Upon cleansing enough of these points, the set would come to life in the virtual space and a boss ghost would come out and challenge the player
Ghost Design and Tuning
Ghosts fly around the set and fire orbs at the center of the players camera. The hunter would have to shoot them down by tapping the projectiles. I designed the physical concepts of each ghost, and the way they would fly around the set and shoot at the player. The clown ghost would fire shots in a spiral pattern while the Rat King’s orbs would wiggle as if they were rats scurrying towards the player
