IDEO had developed an interactive outdoor 4 x 4 metre display which was deployed at the Vodafone headquarters in Lisbon.

As well as functioning as a typical billboard, it could at various times host apps and games which could be played by multiple users via mobile phones.

We were contracted to develop two games, Football Cubed and Spheretoy, working with IDEO designers as they built and tested the system.

My Role

I implemented and co-designed the two apps. The first was a 3D football themed game, in which players raced to a given spot where the ball appeared in order to kick it into the goal.

The second game was non-competitive, and involved bouncing a ball in a 3D cube while various effects were triggered.

Tech Stack

Both apps were built using Adobe Director, written in Lingo and utilising the 3D extensions. A networking Xtra was employed to communicate with the controller and forward commands from incoming DTMF.

What I learnt

The nature of the input device and display presented interesting problems to overcome. The DTMF technology used allowed any phone, mobile or otherwise, to be used. It did however have a noticeable latency, and so the game had to be adjusted to avoid too many quick actions.

While the screen was large (and so, so bright!), it was also situated a distance away from where the user was, and so it was not unlike developing for typical small mobile phone at the time.