Jesse Ryan Vigil
writer, game designer, maker of small wonders

ARBox

ARBox

ARBox is an Augmented Reality-powered Internet of Things-enabled Room Escape in a Box. The box comes with everything you need to turn your home, office, or any other space into Location Based Entertainment.

Your living room becomes the Restricted Wing of a an occult library complete with a haunted book that maybe can’t be trusted. Your office becomes a branch of a spy organization trying to stop the spread of dangerous magical spells. An update adds a new chapter to a story, re-using the printed materials, physical props, and custom IoT device in new ways to create an entirely new multiplayer mixed reality adventure.

The core concept of ARBox revolves around making augmented reality more than just what you can see through the screen of a phone, and instead augmenting the entire reality of its players. ARBox is designed to have actions you take in the virtual wor

The core concept of ARBox revolves around making augmented reality more than just what you can see through the screen of a phone, and instead augmenting the entire reality of its players. ARBox is designed to have actions you take in the virtual world reflected in the real world—from triggering smart lights in your home when you touch ghostly glyphs only seen with the screen to unlocking a real chest when you align AR lasers using your phone as a “mirror” to reflect the beams.

Likewise, real-world actions change what can be seen in AR—arranging real objects in a special order reveals new magical elements to be explored while talking to an agent on a smart speaker accesses puzzle elements that need to be manipulated in AR.

Likewise, real-world actions change what can be seen in AR—arranging real objects in a special order reveals new magical elements to be explored while talking to an agent on a smart speaker accesses puzzle elements that need to be manipulated in AR.

ARBox had a custom wireless peripheral which I designed and fabricated. The “gem” has onboard RGB lighting, an NFC reader, an accelerometer, and a dedicated WiFi/Cellular connection it uses to communicate with the app, provide feedback, and even tri

ARBox had a custom wireless peripheral which I designed and fabricated. The “gem” has onboard RGB lighting, an NFC reader, an accelerometer, and a dedicated WiFi/Cellular connection it uses to communicate with the app, provide feedback, and even trigger puzzles or and experiences. Moving the physical gem around the room or placing it on objects that come in the box (tarot cards, build-it-yourself cardboard propes, etc) unlocked puzzles or in some cases actually operated them.

I designed a fancier version than the exhibition version with a few more bells and whistles, and would someday like to go back to developing this awesome project further.

We built 3 different iterations and storylines that all fit inside a standard box. One box was used to transform a 10x10 cube inside Google’s GDC booth, while another traveled all the way to Paris to be exhibited at the Biblioteque Nationale.

We built 3 different iterations and storylines that all fit inside a standard box. One box was used to transform a 10x10 cube inside Google’s GDC booth, while another traveled all the way to Paris to be exhibited at the Biblioteque Nationale.

Winner of a Google-sponsored AR game jam and later incubated by Google, ARBox was built by myself and my two amazing partners Martzi Campos and Sean Bouchard. ARBox was exhibited at E3 (RIP), GDC, and was a nominee for both IndieCade and IndieCade E

Winner of a Google-sponsored AR game jam and later incubated by Google, ARBox was built by myself and my two amazing partners Martzi Campos and Sean Bouchard. ARBox was exhibited at E3 (RIP), GDC, and was a nominee for both IndieCade and IndieCade Europe.