Gumshoe is a mobile game concept I came up with in 2012 that utilizes geotagging and augmented reality to create a virtual scavenger hunt that users play with their friends. It's similar to Pokemon Go, if they were to let you play with your friends (like everyone wants). The promo movie below details the look and feel of the game as well as some of its features.
sign-up
home screen
your profile/stats
other gumshoes
search for gumshoes
create a new case
waiting for gumshoes to join your case
invitation for a new case
set your items
find items (map mode)
case winner
Process
The game needed a look and feel that would immediately hook in users as well as support the overall concept of a digital scavenger hunt. I thought about notions of hunting and gathering, of pursuit, of the "urban jungle", of exploration, of mysteries being uncovered, of "pounding the pavement", and of solutide.
These ideas began coalescing into two aesthetics. The first was inspired by tales of Victorian-era explorers traveling the jungles of South Asia and Africa, albeit with a digital update.
"jungle" moodboard
"jungle" sketches
The second was based on the film noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s.
"detective" moodboard
"detective" sketches
I was immediately more attracted to the film noir aesthetic. From a personal standpoint, I have always loved stories of the flawed but misunderstood detective pitted against the poisonous consequences of "high society": crime, corruption, extortion, wealth, power, etc. There's something so intruiging about the solitude and exclusion that carries with it a romanticism, one that rages against the darkness of the world around it.
From a design standpoint, the visual vocabulary of these films had much more personality and a much deeper and more fully fleshed out world that I could draw from. This choice would, without a doubt, be more engaging for the user.
custom logotype (with guidelines)