Audio for mobile presents some pretty fearsome challenges. Today’s software offers almost limitless audio features and options, but once your application goes to mobile it’s a whole different ballgame. The audio developer is in a constant struggle for CPU, RAM, and the small amount of volume produced by that tiny little speaker.

Robust, interactive features like those found in today’s audio middleware seem completely out of reach for the mobile developer. This middleware, like WWISE or FMOD, can handle complex playlists of music, and can change the music interactively based on the user’s actions. It knows the natural pulse of the song it is playing, and can be used to synchronize other game events. It can automatically change volume levels to make sure every sound is heard clearly. All of these would be great features to have on a mobile platform, but would require far too much CPU time to be practical.

But at Bully! we don’t believe in sacrificing quality in our mobile apps. In fact, we aim to improve it! Harnessing the immense power of Unity’s scripting engine, Bully! is working on a solution called Maestro! It’s a mobile-optimized plugin that offers a complete suite of audio features that is being battle tested in a couple recent and upcoming releases.

Maestro!’s goal is to make it easier for developers to drop the music in and have greater control over the sound with features including:

• Interactive scoring: The software can change the audio it only where it musically makes sense, so it feels locked to the action like a movie soundtrack.
• A robust event system: Developers can synchronize game features with background music, lock animations to a beat, or to create rhythm-based gameplay.
• Familiar audio middleware functionality: Maestro! can easily “duck” the background music in a variety of ways, elegantly softening the score to allow sound effects to shine through.
• Smart looping: Audio designers can also specify a “tail” segment of their sound files, allowing an audio clip to loop in the middle while still playing the natural echoes after the loop point.

Keep an eye out for updates on Maestro! in the coming months. And if you’re not a mobile developer, don’t fret, it will work on desktops too!

When disaster strikes a nuclear power plant, sometimes you only get once chance to fix the problems and save lives. So of course, reactor engineers need special training to stay cool and collected during a crisis. While special simulator rooms can provide this instruction, the good ones are hard to come by and can be very costly.

Enter Nuclear Training VR – a virtual disaster POC developed by Bully! that features a faithful VR reproduction of a reactor control room where trainees can interact using Oculus Rift headsets. When an earthquake cripples the power plant and puts the facility into crisis mode, participants are tested on their stress levels during the simulated disaster.

The goal of the experiment is to ‘raise the blood pressure’ of the trainees, to give them a taste of what it’s like during an actual crisis. Early trials of the virtual training simulation are promising and demonstrate just how effectively VR can immerse someone in a virtual world – earthquakes or otherwise!

You really want Polaris’ new Slingshot, I mean really, really want it. It’s a super-slick, three-wheeled ATV that looks way better than that Speed Buggy thing we all saw on Saturday morning cartoons. Great. So what’s stopping you from taking a look at it? Well, as of now only a few showrooms have it and none of them are near you.

No problem. Polaris’ Slingshot 360º App has you covered. Using augmented reality technology, you can see the Slingshot from every angle imaginable.

Bully! in collaboration with Integer Group created the app with the latest in Augmented Reality technology from Vuforia, a product of Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc. The actual machine may not be in front of you, but it feels close at hand because of the stunning detail captured in the Unity3D-based model. The virtual vehicle can be rotated and scaled for optimal viewing and interaction.

Augmented reality has a real strength in the practical application of increasing customer interaction prior to full-scale product launch. The time-to-market window is shrinking and revisions and adjustments are being made right up to the time a product is made available to the public. Feedback loops are faster and more direct from consumer straight to producer. Augmented reality creates a dialogue that is grounded in a more hands-on experience without actually seeing the product in person.

So go ahead, download the Slingshot 360º app and experience it for yourself. You don’t even have to leave your couch.

Unity 3D Plus Smart Content, Smart UI and Smart Apps

One of the beautiful things about Unity 3D is its ability to port to multiple platforms. With a “check of a box” *, content can be packaged for deployment across mobile platforms, desktop executables, web browsers, wearable systems, and all the major consoles.

* Ok. Not quite a check of a box, says my developers.

Wrap the content with a smart UI system, however, – one that adjusts not only for aspect ratios but also for device specific control signals – and you have a single stream of content that can be experienced across multiple channels.

Take it a step further and build in a structure that enables client-side apps to pull down only what suits the user experience for that device, and marketers have the ability to deliver responsive, channel-specific experiences to a broad audience from that single set of content.

Benefits include the cost of content creation is amortized across these channels, and built-in continuity for brand messaging no matter how it is accessed.

Example 1 – Automotive Marketing

An automobile manufacturer may develop a very deep content stream containing all options for all vehicle models. If structured correctly, and by utilizing a responsive UI system, apps can be distributed to targeted channels – cross-platform mobile, dealer kiosks, and tradeshow installations. These then automatically present experiences tailored to the platform.

• The mobile experience assumes a more leisurely exploration of the content stream and allows for a deep dive into the full range of vehicles and options.
• A dealer kiosk checks inventory and promotes only what is in stock and only at a mid-level depth to encourage interaction with sales associates.
• A gesture-based tradeshow installation features premium models and engages passersby in quick, attention-getting interactions designed to keep people moving.

And because each pulls from the same content stream, updates to the stream automatically update all channel experiences.

Example 2 – Consumer Packaged Goods Brand Engagement

Cross-channel content utilizing this strategy is not restricted to product presentations. Narrativized content, interactives or storylines, can be deployed in a responsive, content stream system as well.

Created as part of a Starcom pitch, these Keebler concepts illustrate a cross-platform deployment of several interactives designed for a Create-a-Cookie/Share-a-Cookie campaign. Each revolves around ingenious ways the Elves create cookies and includes a global Cookie Counter that tallies all digitally created cookies across all channels.

On mobile platforms, an Elf greets the user, frames the experience with Keebler messaging and challenges the user to create a cookie type of their choice. Each interactive begins with simple cookie creations, for instance moving a helper Elf – holding a large blank cookie – back and forth to catch falling chocolate chips. Once mastered, more elaborate versions of the theme are presented where the user can create an increasing number of cookies at a time.

For Point of Sale (POS) displays, content is more streamlined. The Elf presenter – looks out from the Keebler tree window and waits for a user. A Leap Motion sensor allows swipe gestures for interaction and, in the chocolate chip cookie interactive, controls the movement of the Elf catching chips. When time runs out, the cookie is virtually bagged and the user is prompted to share a cookie with a friend and, then driven to mobile or social channels.

A Magic Mirror/Kinect sensor variation of the POS – for theaters or malls with more floor space – presents an Elf MC that actively tracks and waves to users as they pass. And instead of an Elf holding a blank cookie, the cookie is virtually composited in the user’s own hands. The user must then move back and forth within a certain area to catch virtual chips falling from above.

Larger installations, driven by a combination of Leap Motion, floor and Kinect sensors, spread the interactive content out across multiple windows for broader interaction. Also introduced here is an accountant Elf who is seen counting digital cookies from other channel deployments.

Scaling the Experience

The explosion of digital platforms is opening up many more channels for marketers to reach their audience. To take advantage of this, without breaking the bank, content needs to be designed in a way that effectively scales to different platforms, from mobile to desktop and beyond. Unity 3D gets you half-way there but to truly accomplish this, what’s needed is a careful structuring of the content, a UI that adjusts to the device, and client-side apps that tailor user experience.

Just a little infographic we’ve been working on …

The countdown to the World Cup has begun, but not everyone can make the trip to Brazil. Even fewer can kick a winning goal. But if you can flick and swipe, then you might get the chance to do both — with the Pelé: King of Football app, our collaboration with Cosi Productions and One Global, available in the iTunes and Google Play stores. Start playing now because time is running out on your chance to win World Cup tickets, the opportunity to meet Pelé, a tryout with the Oldham Athletic A.F.C. (an actual professional team in England), and more!

In a special event at the Apple store in Soho, Pelé had a Q&A with a few of his adoring fans, while our lead developer on the app, Mike LeGrand, walked everyone through the app’s features. You can watch the event here on iTunes.

Intrigued? Follow in Pelé’s footsteps in career mode and work your way from the backstreets of Brazil all the way up to the grandeur of the World Stage or play in Pelé Blitz and pit yourself against your friends and challenge the world in hourly online competitions. Choose from hundreds of uniform combinations, use special power-ups to help you through tricky levels and watch our exclusively recorded interview footage of Pelé. By the way, you can thank the Baltimore Blast (and motion capture) for helping us get the soccer players’ movements just right.

You earn special tickets just through playing, and these enter you into real world prize draws. What are you waiting for, soccer fans? Let’s hit the field!

Pelé: King of Football Game Teaser from Bully Entertainment on Vimeo.