LEON NICHOLLS: Welcome to Assistant on Air.
This season, we're chatting with designers and developers
who created games for smart displays.
I'm Leon, and I'm your host for today.
I'm a Developer Relations Engineer
for the Google Assistant.
In today's episode, we're joined by Andrezza, the Creative
Director at MediaMonks, who led the creative elements
behind the game Cookie Detective.
Welcome, Andrezza.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Hi, Leon.
Thanks for having me.
I'm super excited to be a part of this episode.
LEON NICHOLLS: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: I'm Andrezza Valentin from MediaMonks LA,
and I'm the creative director behind both Assistant
games, Cookie Detective and Junior Chef,
which my colleague Richard will talk about in another episode.
I also grew up playing video games.
My father worked in a company that imported the first Atari
and Nintendo to Brazil.
So gaming was always a huge interest of mine,
and having the opportunity to be part
of a project where we would be using a new gaming
technology, which is voice, was super exciting and fun for me.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, it was a lot of fun
for us to work together on the project.
So tell us, what is Cookie Detective?
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Sure.
So Cookie Detective is a take on hide-and-seek
and 20 Questions as a voice-first game.
So the premise of the game is to invite kids
to use their imagination and memory,
by asking questions to locate a hidden cookie within three
different kitchens, with different levels of complexity.
So the idea of searching for cookies in the kitchen
was based on the fact that voice devices are often
placed in common areas where people tend to congregate.
And the focus of the kitchen was because this
is the most frequented area in the house,
and usually where people place their devices, and the contexts
where the kids would normally engage with this game.
Perhaps an adult is cooking and they're actually
on a hunt for a real cookie.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yes, the fact that multiple people can
play the game at the same time on a smart display
is a unique capability.
Now, I love the onboarding experience for the game.
It's a great example of how voice and visuals go
hand-in-hand.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Yes.
The Cookie Detective mechanic, it's all about kids
asking the right questions about the hiding spot in the kitchens
to find the mischievous cookie.
So we needed to use the onboarding
to teach the little players how to ask the questions using
deductive reasoning, and also descriptive attributes
like names and color about the possible hiding spots.
And we also introduce the rules of the game, which
is you'll only have 10 maximum questions before you
can find a cookie, and different incremental levels
of difficulty.
The onboarding is also where everyone
meets for the first time.
So players and characters learn how to play together.
We rely on the character's voice also
to reveal their personality and help us set the tone.
We want kids to feel comfortable about asking questions,
and show to them that they would always get a fun reply.
So we would reinforce a positive pattern of behavior.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, and having a strong persona
in the game really takes it to the next level.
Now, the game has lots of helpful elements
to make it intuitive and enjoyable,
from the suggestion chips to outlining the hiding
spots on each level, and there's lots
of hiding spots in this game.
So, how did you accommodate all the attributes
for the various hiding spots?
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: So all the three kitchens
share the same hiding spots, but each one of them
has its own level of difficulty.
So as part of the gameplay learning curve,
we organize the object tree based
on the numbers of hiding spots with similar attributes.
So it's basically a funnel mechanism,
where you have to ask more accurate and strategic
questions to find the right hiding spot before you run out
of chances.
So if you ask are you hiding somewhere dark,
and you'll have multiple spots with the same attribute,
the player won't get any insightful tips
about where the cookie is hiding.
And also, the level of difficulty
increases as the player progresses in the game.
For example, on level three, we introduce new hiding spots
but with fewer attributes, sometimes one or two,
making it more difficult for the players to guess.
So they have to be very specific on their questions
to find the correct answer.
And we created a relationship between the kitchen items
so we could also make the interactivity more
conversational and closer to natural language.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, it's the conversational aspects that
make this game challenging.
And I must admit, I don't always win the game.
Now, another interesting aspect of this game
is the use of touch.
In Cookie Detective, touching or tapping the smart display
is used as a kind of a secondary helpful element.
Can you talk about that?
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Sure.
I think this is one of the key differences
as a voice-first game.
Cookie Detective was created for the Google Assistant
smart display, which is a voice assistant device with a touch
screen.
However, the screen in our game has a secondary role,
acting more as a support of the gameplay,
which is primarily controlled by voice.
The use of touch and tap was very
intentional and purposeful.
For example, at the beginning of the Cookie Detective,
we have touch as an alternative to voice for the second player.
It could be an adult, a friend, that
wants to hide the cookie in the kitchen,
but without revealing to the first player
where the cookie is hidden.
And another intentional use of touch is the suggestion chips.
Players can also play the game by tapping on the suggestions
chips on the bottom-right corner of the screen.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yes, sometimes I'm grasping for ideas
and then the suggestion chips come quite handy.
Now let's talk about the visuals.
The three levels are really beautifully
and creatively designed.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Thank you, yes.
We had a lot of fun with the design,
especially when it comes to the rooms.
Our idea was to use the same environment
setup of the kitchen, but change up the theme
throughout the levels.
So the game starts with a kitchen
that is closer to the real ones, where the little players have
a sense of familiarity and connection.
But once they're fully immersed in the gameplay,
then we start taking them to more fantastical setups,
making the experience more fun and playful.
We also use some visual devices, like outlines around objects
to ease the players into the game narrative.
And we start with all the hiding spots actually highlighted
by the outlines.
But as the level of difficulty increases,
those outlines disappear, and the players
have to rely only on their memory
to remember all the previous questions.
And deduct the remaining possible hiding spots.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, the winning and the losing screens
are also great.
When you lose, you see this little mouse.
I guess it's the archnemesis of the game,
and it's scampering around.
But when you win, your cookie friend
actually invites you to do the cookie dance.
And I love how you've included the physical real-life aspects
with the digital part of the game.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Yeah, I love the cookie dance too.
So the connection between real-life and digital world
was essential to us, because we wanted
to create a sense of joy and delight
that could be shared with the whole family.
LEON NICHOLLS: Andrezza, thank you
so much for joining us today.
Often we think something is great,
but we don't really deep dive into all
the intentional details that make it so polished.
So it's really great to hear you talk about this.
ANDREZZA VALENTIN: Leon, thanks for having me and letting
me share the Cookie Detective story,
and hopefully inspire other people to create
other voice-first games experiences.
LEON NICHOLLS: All right.
I hope you've enjoyed Andrezza's insights
on the voice and visual elements of building a smart display
game.
Now, if you want to test your own detective skills,
play Cookie Detective and other games
we are promoting in this series.
I'm going to get myself a cookie in the kitchen.
Thanks for watching.