NoFold

Game Library Interacted by a controller Ray
Classic Love Letter with o friend observing
3 Card Monte card choosing
Game Library After Selecting one Game
Classic Love Letter exchainging cards
Doggo does not understand why we are having fun
Love Letter Harry Potter Edition
Quest 3 Depth Sensor in action

Inspiration

In today's online world, people love connecting through social gaming. Traditional catalysts like laser tag or watching a game can be limiting, failing to be inclusive or accessible for everyone. This is where NoFold draws inspiration. We believe board games, a timeless social activity, hold the key to bringing people together online.

What it does

Picture this: board game night with a twist. No more crowded tables or lost pieces under the couch! Using XR technology as a bridge for creating an immersive environment where players feel like they're truly sitting around a table together, NoFold provides a next-gen web/XR hybrid platform that covers the needs of the boardgame community as a whole. It allows creators to design their games through an intuitive interface, while it also offers the opportunity to seamlessly connect with remote players in XR environments for realistic playtesting, fostering a collaborative and dynamic space to bring board games to life in the digital world.

Design custom games and make them available to the NoFold XR app through NoFold game authoring tool.
NoFold takes your classic game nights into the future with a collocated multiuser MR experience.
Imagine your favorite custom-designed board game (starting with cards for now) coming to life on your coffee table.
Through scene understanding, the game positions itself on your real-world surface.
Want to strategize and move your pieces? NoFold integrates physics interactions, letting you use your hands or controllers to manipulate virtual objects just like you would in the real world.

This unique blend of physical and digital elements brings a whole new dimension to game night, fostering social connection and playful competition.

How we built it

NoFold was brought to life through a combination of development tools.

We used the Unity engine alongside Meta Quest 2 and 3 headsets for the core XR experience.
For intuitive input, players can choose between traditional controllers and the built-in hand tracking capabilities of the headsets.
Meta's SDKs provided the foundation for the interactive elements and the magic of mixed reality.
To connect players across the digital divide, we used Photon and Normcore for the multiplayer aspects.
The web-based authoring tool for board game creation was developed using Dart and Flutter.
Finally, Firebase served as the backbone for our storage needs.

This diverse tech stack allowed us to craft a seamless and engaging experience for board game enthusiasts everywhere.

Challenges we ran into

Developing NoFold wasn't without its challenges. Keeping up with frequent updates to the SDKs we relied on meant constant adaptation. Changes often broke functionality, requiring swift updates on our end. Additionally, discrepancies between how features behaved in Unity's editor and the final headset build slowed us down. For example, features like OVRHands wouldn't appear in the editor on play mode, forcing us to rebuild the entire application to test them – adding significant time to the development process.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

First and foremost, we are proud of making the first steps towards providing the next generation of board gaming! In a very short amount of time, we've harnessed the power of Meta's SDKs to transform our ideas into reality, creating a hybrid platform that not only offers a fun mixed reality experience for players, but also has potential to support the creative process of board game design. We are also glad that the blending of physical and digital elements within the NoFold XR app was seamless, making all the aspects of the experience feel super realistic! Furthermore, the platform's integration with both hand-tracking and controller interaction technologies ensures flexibility and accessibility for players of all preferences.

What we learned

Building NoFold was our gateway to so many cutting-edge technologies! We dove headfirst into using the latest SDKs, unlocking the potential of state-of-the-art Mixed-Reality hardware. It was awesome to see how seamlessly the physical and virtual worlds could blend together to create a truly immersive experience, which helped us realise the unlimited possibilities offered by MR. We were also impressed by the flexibility and features of the Interaction SDK, offering both hand-tracking and controller options for players. But NoFold's journey wasn't all fun and games (pun intended). We also tackled the complexities of user data permissions, as well as learning the ins and outs of the developer dashboard to manage and publish our apps.

What's next for NoFold

And we are not stopping here! Here’s a glimpse of our next steps:

In the future, the platform will offer the ability to mix and match remote and collocated players for the ultimate board game night.
The web app will get upgraded too, letting creators group and edit components in bulk with ease, along with the freedom to place them precisely on the virtual table.
On the XR side, get ready for more intuitive card interactions! Shuffling decks or manipulating multiple cards in hand and groups of cards strategically, placing objects on the table freely. Also important features for the gameplay, including card locking and hiding so other players cannot cheat!
And of course, let’s not forget about the variety – future updates will introduce 3D models, game pieces, and even digital dice, bringing the full physical board game experience to the virtual world.
Currently the UI of the library is very minimal, we intend to make it look more shiny and polished. Also in the future we will offer all the necessary options for a game library, from searching and filtering while browsing to presenting much more info about the games, boardgame-geek-style!