Internship at Supercube

I did my internship at SparkLab/Odyssey Entertainment which has been later renamed to Supercube. This start-up develops a karting platform that provides the sensations of real karting coupled with the fun and flexibility of augmented reality. In short, players play as if they were in the videogame, driving a connected electric go-kart immersed in an interactive virtual world that is projected on the walls and floor of large hangers. The platform features are:

  • A 360° projection system that transform large spaces into interactive virtual worlds.
  • A location system to locate every kart in this virtual world with millimeter accuracy.
  • Electric karts equipped with onboard electronics that dynamically modifies the kart's behavior (power, speed, forced brake, etc), dashboard screen (HUD) and steering wheel buttons that allow players to interact with the other players and the virtual world.
  • A central server to connect and coordinate all the above.
This platform is like a game console on which boundless mind-blowing adventures/videogames can be played. They have developed a software development kit (SDK) on Unreal Engine to allow anyone to create games on their platform.

I chose this internship because it looked like an awesome project. First of all because they use real karts that can go up to 70km/h. Furthermore they also planned to develop a multiplayer game which is something I wanted to do for a long time. Next, they are using Unreal engine, an engine I wanted to deepen my knowledge about. And lastly, they are using a lot of different technologies (360 projection, real-time location tracking, voice communication, web server) which I all found very interesting.

I was in charge of making the new games. Starting from a design I created two game modes from scratch. A mission's game mode and a racing game mode. In the missions game mode you have to complete the missions or minigames as fast as possible. This game mode would be mainly used as demo for showing off the game at conventions or as a single player skill testing event where players need to get the best high-score. Currently there are 3 different missions, but the system is designed to be able to easily add more missions or variations on the current ones. The first mission is the gate mission: the goal is to drive through the gates in the correct order as fast as possible. The next mission is the blasting mission: you drive on a track and shoot targets that are posted next to the track. The last mission is the collect mission: the player has to collect as many collectibles as possible that keep spawning across the map. In the other game mode, the racing game mode, players race against each other to finish first. And they can use bonuses that they get from mystery boxes to get an advantage and annoy the other players. They also need to watch out for obstacles on the track or for boost zones that will make them go faster for some time.

I used the in house developed C++ SDK to control the kart and communicate with it. I also modified it where fit to improve or streamline operations. The game was made as a first playable (proof of concept). Meaning that it needed to test all the different systems and serves as an example for others that will be developing on this platform.

After my internship ended they have opened their first location in Gent. Where you can now book this awesome augmented reality karting experience for yourself.