Vodafone

Vodafone Qatar wanted to digitally transform fan engagement in the build-up to Qatar 2022. Football fans visiting the stores' high-tech Fan Zone needed to be able to experience an engaging and customised gaming experience utilising the latest emerging technologies.

The Recursive team were tasked with designing and creating a unique gamified football experience for visitors to participate in the store. We developed the concept of an interactive Batak-style game which occurs in real-time on the pitch.

Players take the role of a goalkeeper who must save as many shots as possible during the game. Players need to interact with the experience by moving in front of the large LED display and moving their hands to save the shot which comes from all angles. At no point do players need to touch the wall, hold or wear equipment to interact with the system.

Our team undertook the development of the software engine which ran the experience utilising a combination of Unreal Engine and Touch Designer. These software solutions are interfaced with the wider hardware elements such as motion sensors, and the experiences audio system.

Users' interactions with the game are tracked using a unique markerless motion tracking arrangement developed in-house, which is interpreted by the software to render the real-time movement for the on-screen avatar, whilst simultaneously calculating and displaying the Batak/Goal scoring metric which is displayed directly to the super large format LED video wall.

We then created a user interface which allowed for the collection and passing of user data, email setup etc. This app also provided the staff with real-time control over the experience, such as changing modes.