Sol is an augmented reality game that aims to simultaneously restructure how we think of games and how we think of community, sending players on an epic quest, to see their city in a truly new light. As they navigate the Valley of the Sun, solving location-specific puzzles at museums, parks, businesses, and monuments, they will learn about themselves, their community, and their world… and the necessity to save it.

Purpose

• With rising interest in civic engagement in the US, a game that incentivizes understanding your community, volunteering at local charities, shopping at local businesses, acting responsibly within the framework of your communities’ goals, and exercising and increasing civic pride is situated in a strategic position to provide an experience only an augmented reality game can offer. 
•  The global virtual and augmented reality market stood at $37 billion in 2019 and is expected to exceed more than $117 billion by 2024, with annual growth projected at 153%. 
• Growing penetration of the technology in the travel and tourism industry is expected to propel the augmented reality market growth. Marrying this trend with gaming, which is projected to grow at 34% annually,  provides a unique market space, allowing Sol to capitalize on both trends.

Methodology

• Utilizing our team’s unique blend of civic engagement experience, business acumen, game development history, and programming savvy, we are crafting a game unlike any other. On a given day, families and tourists will visit a local monument and learn its history. They will ride the light rail to a local non-profit and perform community service. They will then walk to a nearby restaurant and learn how it is connected to their community.
• There are side-quests and one-off missions players can solve. But the piece of the game that will keep players coming back for more will be the main quest. It is anchored by an epic hero’s journey narrative of an artificial intelligence helping us to see humanity through her eyes. The initial challenge in the game is a massive solar flare that wipes out our digital infrastructure. Players will work with the AI, Iris, to shield their community from future solar flares, while building a network across the valley through their gaming experience and person-to-person experiences. They will be given AI caterpillars, called “Starlings” similar to Tamagotchis and Giga Pets. But instead of just sleeping and eating, these pets gamify helping players engage with their community. The seven-chapter narrative arc will see players learn about the history of the valley, participate in real-world solutions to our present challenges and instill in them a vision of our future. 

Milestones

• We are spending the next two months working with Ensō Education Institute developing the game’s framework and story and building out the demo.
• The next three months will be spent raising capital and conducting outreach to community partners to secure letters of intent.
• The third step is to alpha test the game, followed by fleshing out visuals and refining gameplay. This is expected to take three months. 
• Our final developmental step will be to beta test the game and finalize all elements. Our goal is to complete these steps within a year.

Implications

• Once Sol is successful in the valley, the potential for this technology to spread to other cities is only limited by our ability to grow and develop future games. This technology has the capacity to develop into an educational game with rigorous academic standards. It represents a new way to do business and could rework how consumers connect with products.  

For more information on Sol, contact Corey Harris at coreyharrisaz@gmail.com or (480) 776-9526.