Ipswich Borough Council approached Unity Developers and Urban XR about producing a town center-specific Christmas experience.  A collaboration between Urban XR, Eggbox Studios, and Unity Developers provided the solution needed.

Planning discussions with the Council official Visitor Brand highlighted the need to make the content something that was specific to Ipswich, and the council buildings at the Cornhill town square in particular. Urban XR and Eggbox Studios collaborated to create the basic characters and animations. But adding AR content to an urban environment was something new to the team, and they looked to Unity Developers to develop the character into a usable iOS and Android app..

The specification called for an AR solution that would allow users to see a computer-generated image of a reindeer – named ‘Sammy’ – to jump and prance over the rooftops of the Cornhill area of the town.

Historic in nature, Cornhill is now a vibrant mix of classical styles and modern venues, and the team needed to ensure that Sammy could fit in with those different facades without looking false or partially disappearing into building features.  However, this part of the project was complicated by the fact that Sammy was being promoted as a festive character, and at Christmas, the Cornhill is transformed into a glittering winter wonderland, and Sammy would need to be able to deal with a changing environment that could not really be planned for.

The Unity Developers team needed to identify a suitable point that would allow the App to orientate itself and ensure that the digital creation within the App would grate with the Cornhill environment correctly.  The impressive town hall facade was the obvious anchor point since it would remain constant regardless of the season.

For the team, it became apparent that the App would need to have a degree of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that would allow the character to anticipate the skyline that was being presented via the camera and deal with it in a natural way.

Unity AR Foundation is the perfect engine for this, and has ample AI integration. By utilising the Unity game engine, creators are given the ability to create games and Apps that are immersive across a variety of platforms, such as mobile devices, consoles, and personal computers. Unity stands out from other software because of its intuitive user interface and extensive feature set. The Unity Developers team used their intimate knowledge of the Unity Engine, to give the Sammy character the intelligent features needed to negotiate a seasonally-changing city environment.

With the App being signed off, it became available on the App Store and Play Store for free download for Android and iPhone users.  To date it has had a significant number of downloads, which grow every year.

The App is ideal because it is not time-constrained; Like Xmas Slade songs, it is timeless and can bring joy to the festive crowds in Ipswich for years to come.

Sammy the Reindeer and the Cornhill Christmas App is a magnificent testament to the power of the Unity software, but more than that, it is a demonstration of how Unity Developers are a professional development company, attuned to the needs of the client, and able to engage with clients and other professionals to get the job done.