The Cake Monster
Summary
A rapid-prototype Augmented Reality Android game created in a few hours as the grand finale of a real-life birthday quest. Fight a 3D monster guarding a real birthday cake!
The Real-Life Quest
This project was built as the grand finale for a highly orchestrated, real-life birthday quest for a friend. The premise was simple but tragic: an invisible otherworldly Augmented Reality monster arrived early and stole his birthday cake.
To get it back, the birthday boy had to travel to various locations, complete real-world challenges, and gather his friends along the way. At the final destination, he found the physical cake box, but the invisible monster was fiercely guarding it. He was handed a “special device” (an Android phone with this custom app) to finally see the beast and defeat it.
AR Gameplay Mechanics
The app utilizes the device’s camera to track a specific physical marker placed directly on the cake box.
- The Encounter: Once the app recognizes the marker, the 3D Cake Monster is rendered standing triumphantly on top of the physical cake box in real space.
- The Battle: The gameplay relies on simple screen swipes. The player must aggressively swipe across the screen to deal damage to the monster.
- Victory: Upon depleting the monster’s health, a dramatic death animation plays, the monster collapses, and the player is finally granted permission to open the real box and claim their cake.
- Easter Egg: Just for fun, the app included a hidden feature that forced the terrifying monster to perform an upbeat dance routine.
Development & Technical Details
This was a highly experimental, rapid-prototyping project completed in just a few hours.
- Engine & AR Tech: Built in Unity, utilizing the Vuforia engine for robust image target tracking and AR rendering on Android.
- Collaborative Asset Creation: I wanted our friend group to be part of the development process. I tasked some friends (who had absolutely zero prior 3D modeling experience) to sculpt the scariest monster they could using a simplified ZBrush interface. The resulting blue, spiky alien was perfect.
- Animation: To save time during the rapid development window, I rigged the custom ZBrush model and utilized free Mixamo animations to handle the monster’s idle breathing, hit animations, death sequence, and the secret dancing easter egg.
The Dancing Monster v1
