Reality check and The Green Spurt: The beginnings

Last year brought the biggest plot twist of my career. After spending 7 years with the same digital agency, I was affected by a major layoff.

I started my career as an iOS Engineer in 2017, and over the years, I have contributed to the development of more than 20 enterprise and startup apps, including Scandinavia's largest digital public services app, which impacts tens of millions of users daily. My passion for Augmented Reality began around the same time, with the release of ARKit. In 2022, I established and led the Immersive Technologies practice (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Metaverse), a role that allowed me to work on and advise some truly exciting projects around the world.

As most layoffs probably do, it came as a surprise, but I quickly realized it was an opportunity to build something of my own. I was always tempted to do this and it really felt like a “now or never” moment.

I took the time of my garden leave to wind down a bit and then reconnected with Cristian Díaz, a colleague from the same company who was also affected by the layoffs.

Cristian is a humanist and software developer specializing in accessible spatial computing. He began building apps for Apple devices with Xcode version 4 and was an iOS and visionOS Lead Engineer on several apps and POCs, including the agency's most notable Augmented Reality project for one of the biggest chocolate producers and confectionary companies in the world.

Both of us share the same passion for spatial computing, and we worked well together, so it was a no-brainer to team up and do something meaningful and cool.

Our shared mission is straightforward: to become experts in spatial computing.

In the long term, we aim to be advisors on creating solutions for Apple Vision Pro, building a legacy of award-winning experiences focused on immersive content innovation – all of this with a strong commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

From the get-go, we knew we wanted to be makers first and crafting 'magical moments' should be at the core of everything we do.

What is a magical moment? (A personal definition)

A magical moment on Apple Vision Pro is that special point during your experience that makes you go "wow". It can happen because of something really advanced and cool or something simple and delightful. These moments often catch you by surprise, making them memorable even if you think you know what to expect.

Next step was to find a name for our duo. After long debates and hours of diving into our favorite pop culture references, such as Neuromancer, Ready Player One, For All Mankind or TRON, and technically relevant terms such as voxels, particles or point clouds, we decided on a name that was already in front of us all the time: Reality check.

Reality check is the name of the open-source tool that Cristian built to help AR development teams streamline their workflows and improve the quality of their projects. It just seemed fitting, memorable and a somehow fun reference that the layoff was, in fact, a Reality check for us.

Creative sessions followed for the design of the brand, but that deserves its own spotlight one day.

With a name in place and a big dream to achieve, we started our first project.

The Green Spurt: Our first playground for experimentation and learning

I have always loved puzzles, and in particular escape rooms because they offer the added bonus of social interactions, time pressure, and a story where you can feel immersed into. A fun break from your day to day life that that can also be quite meditative.

The idea of escape rooms going beyond the typical setup was sparked by EXIT: The Game, an award-winning series of escape room games you can play at home, developed by Inka & Markus Brand. Shoutout to my good friends and escape room connoisseurs, Nairah and Ennis, for introducing it to me.

Encounter Dinosaurs, developed by Apple with Executive Producer Jon Favreau, was one of the first experiences I tried on the device, and it left a lasting impact on me. Design interactive experiences for visionOS WWDC video is a must-watch, covering how this experience came to life.

What If...? An Immersive Story, developed by Disney, once again demonstrated how fun and immersive it is to be part of a story on the Apple Vision Pro. I highly recommend checking out the RealityPl.us Episode 4: Immersive Storytelling with Vicki Dobbs Beck, the VP of Immersive Content Innovation at Lucasfilm and ILM Immersive. This episode is packed with over 30 years of expertise in groundbreaking storytelling technology and interactive entertainment.

Honorable mentions go to inSpaze, Game Room and FaceTime, in our list of apps that inspired us and reinforced our belief that shared experiences will be the "killer apps" for Apple Vision Pro.

The Green Spurt is all those pieces of inspiration coming together. An immersive story-living experience, where you progress through the narrative by solving puzzles with your friends and family wherever you are. Apple Vision Pro’s natural interaction design and extensive assistive technologies make the experience accessible to all players, regardless of gaming expertise.

It also happens to be a great playground for us to learn by doing, as we can be creative and take advantage of all features of the platform, from building immersive environments and object interactions to spatial audio and more.

• Did we had any game experience prior to this? No.
• Did it seem like an impossible mountain to climb? Yes.
• Do we consider ourselves a bit delusional at times? Absolutely.

How it started

How it's going

It’s been four months into our journey of building this indie game. Looking back at day one, we see a lot of progress, and that's what keeps us going – treating this with a mentality of one step at a time.

Next up: I'll be sharing a peek into the process, from the technologies we use to the lessons learned and our current challenges. And if you want to dive into hours of technical discoveries condensed into bite-sized articles, keep an eye on Cristian's blog.

With immersive regards from my digital persona!