An interactive treasure hunt for Star Wars.
Project Background
Each year Star Wars releases new merchandise as part of their global “Find the Force” campaign.
In 2017 with agency partner No Fixed Address, we helped design and develop the Canadian site where users were able to play an embedded game within Google Maps and unlock virtual reality features and other early-access, in-store perks.
Who are you fighting for?
The goal of the project was to give players an immersion in the Star Wars universe through an exploration of their own local area.
After opening the website, players would be prompted to choose to join the Resistance or the First Order. Through a Facebook verification, the player would be uniquely identified and their activity would claim certain locations in the name of the Resistance or First Order, respectively.
An interactive, global treasure hunt
With close to 300 locations across Canada provided in a CSV file, we went to work creating the visual layer and interactive elements required for Google Maps.
Location information needed to be developed and identified in a number of ways, including:
- whether the “base” was claimed by the Resistance or the First Order
- which theatres had a midnight release
- which locations had an augmented reality experience
Across Canada, across mediums
With a project that spanned geographic locations, platforms, and devices, we leveraged our knowledge to create a seamless gaming and augmented reality experience for the players.
Pulling together the massive number of media, design elements, and tracking that would allow the map to dynamically update was an endeavour in itself, and paid off when we could see the results of the work: by pointing your phone at the CN Tower at a particular time and location, you could see a spaceship landing.
There’s nothing quite like making a story become (virtual) reality.
