ROLES
CONCEPT CREATION : CREATIVE DIRECTION : CLIENT FACING
MEDIUMS
RESPONSIVE WEB GAME
CONCEPT CREATION : CREATIVE DIRECTION : CLIENT FACING
MEDIUMS
RESPONSIVE WEB GAME
Challenge & Insight
Create a digital first, engaging interactive story, to showcase the breadth of IBM Watson AI solutions and capabilities in a way that appeals to influential developers and Tech leaders. Encouraging them to take the next step and connect with IBM to learn more.
Create a digital first, engaging interactive story, to showcase the breadth of IBM Watson AI solutions and capabilities in a way that appeals to influential developers and Tech leaders. Encouraging them to take the next step and connect with IBM to learn more.
Through research, we discovered that 90% of developers are also gamers.
Concept: The Harmonic State
EXPERIENCE IT HERE
Choosing the right AI partner and solution can mean the difference between harmony and dissonance.
We wanted to create a musical puzzle game that educates users on the different Watson solutions IBM provides. Using a dynamic soundscape that immerses the player in the storytelling journeys of three IBM partners.
Demonstrating how these AI solutions can uncover issues, restore harmony in an organization and ultimately transform a business’ performance – encouraging users to take that next step with IBM.
Created during the global pandemic as a means to enhance engagement during virtual events. We built an immersive, audio-visual gaming experience that draws users into the worlds of three IBM client stories, tapping into the unique tensions and challenges within each story to show how Watson helps businesses transform their operations from dissonance to harmony by uncovering critical, actionable data points.
Choosing the right AI partner and solution can mean the difference between harmony and dissonance.
We wanted to create a musical puzzle game that educates users on the different Watson solutions IBM provides. Using a dynamic soundscape that immerses the player in the storytelling journeys of three IBM partners.
Demonstrating how these AI solutions can uncover issues, restore harmony in an organization and ultimately transform a business’ performance – encouraging users to take that next step with IBM.
Created during the global pandemic as a means to enhance engagement during virtual events. We built an immersive, audio-visual gaming experience that draws users into the worlds of three IBM client stories, tapping into the unique tensions and challenges within each story to show how Watson helps businesses transform their operations from dissonance to harmony by uncovering critical, actionable data points.
We chose two amazing partners to help bring the concept and vision to life. Active Theory who designed and built the experience and Plan 8 who created the dynamic soundscape and music.
Premiering at IBM’s proprietary conference Think 2021. Quickly becoming the most popular piece of interactive storytelling at Think, across the globe (North & South America, Europe and Asia).
Users have the chance to play three distinct games/levels aligned to the three stories, where they travel through a 3D environment and work to restore harmony within those worlds by capturing and capitalizing on Watson’s insights.
Bringing the stories to life
While creating a gaming experience for this audience seemed like a no-brainer, we also wanted to ensure it had wider appeal. By equating the challenges and successes that businesses face to dissonant and harmonious sound/tones, respectively, we felt we could develop a compelling audio-visual gaming experience that allowed for high-level storytelling while also creating enough substance around Watson’s capabilities and solutions – and how they work – for our developer audience to want to dig in deeper.
While creating a gaming experience for this audience seemed like a no-brainer, we also wanted to ensure it had wider appeal. By equating the challenges and successes that businesses face to dissonant and harmonious sound/tones, respectively, we felt we could develop a compelling audio-visual gaming experience that allowed for high-level storytelling while also creating enough substance around Watson’s capabilities and solutions – and how they work – for our developer audience to want to dig in deeper.
We designed three immersive, dynamically generated 3D game environments, that aligned to three separate, cross-industry Watson case studies and solutions. Each game has a distinct theme, built around a key benefit that the Watson solution helped that particular client achieve.
The case studies and themes are:
01.Humana – theme: connection
02.The Weather Channel – theme: clarity
03. ESPN – theme: confidence
01.Humana – theme: connection
02.The Weather Channel – theme: clarity
03. ESPN – theme: confidence
Game mechanic & Sound design
Through the gameplay, users are immersed in a colorful and sonic world that aligns to each theme, showcasing a full transformation from the challenge state (dissonance) all the way through the solution state (harmony).
We chose to reverse a common gameplay technique, so the gameplay got easier the further the player progresses. This was important to the narrative, demonstrating how acting on Watson’s insights creates order, clarity and ultimately harmony.
We intentionally used the dissonant sounds and chaotic setting at the start of each story to help our audience feel the claustrophobic tension the featured clients felt. Helping build an emotional connection to the storytelling.
The user’s gameplay is timed and scored, with results being shared through a data visualization at the conclusion of each game. From there, the user has the opportunity to dive further into the client story, select a different game, schedule a meeting with an expert, or share their experience with others on social media.
Story 01.Humana
This is a customer service story in the healthcare industry. Our goal here was to create a world that transitions from the all too familiar tension of poor customer service to a place that can focus on seamless healthcare.
This is a customer service story in the healthcare industry. Our goal here was to create a world that transitions from the all too familiar tension of poor customer service to a place that can focus on seamless healthcare.
We start with a complex sea of fiber optic cables and the sound of hold music and messaging. As the player progresses, so does the environment. The more insights they collect, the more the space opens up, turning the wires in to more of an organic network of vessels and the soundscape reveals heartbeat and medical monitoring equipment.
Story 02. The Weather Channel
This story demonstrates how TWC used Watson on its powerful platform to broadcast essential information about COVID 19 in a sea of misinformation and conspiracy.
This story demonstrates how TWC used Watson on its powerful platform to broadcast essential information about COVID 19 in a sea of misinformation and conspiracy.
We incorporated a dense fog of clouds, particles and thunder, with a dizzying cacophony of news and conversation. As clarity gets restored, the colds dissipate and the soundscape shifts to sounds of nature and people safely enjoying being outside.
Story 02.The ESPN Fantasy Football
This lighthearted story speaks to how AI can even be used to help fans make more informed decisions for their fantasy football picks.
This lighthearted story speaks to how AI can even be used to help fans make more informed decisions for their fantasy football picks.
We used the world of statistics in the form of bar charts to create a complex and daunting architectural environment. The player has to navigate this maze and collect players on the rise, whilst avoiding those falling in the ranks.
As the player progresses with Watson, the charts simplify, making it easier to make the right picks. As this happens, the soundscape transitions from SFX that alludes to bad gameplay and frustrated crowds of fans, to winning moments an elated chanting.
Technical challenges and solutions
We originally wanted to create an algorithm using real data sets from our client stories. Sadly it wasn’t possible, even to use the data used to train Watson for the specific solutions.
That said, we were still able to work with Active Theory and Plan 8 to push the technical boundaries.
Active Theory used a bespoke type of browser friendly Web GL for real-time scalability, that dynamically adapted to the players progress in the game.
They helped us pushed the limits on the amount of visual information to create these rich environments, without sacrificing crucial gameplay performance.
The special way AT built this, analyses the device and browser the player is using and dynamically alters the quality and quantity of environmental graphics accordingly.
Read more about their special approach to optimize 3D web environments here.
In order to meet our brief, Plan 8 had to export each note separately to be able to change timing and pitch in real time. Directly linking the game’s timescale to the sequencer bpm. The result is a music track that follows the game tightly, keeping the orbs in sync with the beat.
With the music playing in this granular sequencer they also made it possible to affect the pitch independently from the tempo. We used this in the game by starting the music slightly pitched down and slowly ramping the pitch to normal as the game evolved.