Скачать или смотреть ‘Riddle Mia This’ – A Mobile, Augmented Reality, Museum Puzzle Experience

Samantha Thi Porter, Colin McFadden

Escape rooms are an increasingly popular form of immersive entertainment in which a group of people are ‘locked’ in a space and must solve a series of puzzles to accomplish an objective (e.g. escape from jail, solve a mystery, or steal a work of art). In addition to being fun, these experiences are also being leveraged for purposes such as team building and education. Although escape rooms traditionally inhabit relatively confined physical installations, the medium is increasingly integrating new technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, and being brought into larger spaces. Taking advantage of the popularity of escape rooms and new accessible tools for augmented reality (AR), we collaborated with the Minneapolis Institute of Art to develop ‘Riddle Mia This’. The free mobile app uses a combination of AR, a messaging system, and physically placed clues to take visitors on a puzzle adventure through the museum. We will discuss the technical, logistical, and design challenges involved in developing a game for such a large, dynamic institution. These include practical concerns (How will users navigate the space?) as well as more abstract considerations (How do you craft an engaging story that focuses users on the art in the museum and not the technology in their phone?). The project was developed in Unity, and the source code is being made available via Github. We hope our case study can be used as a model for other institutions seeking to create their own immersive experiences.