When I heard that X Studios was building content for the official Halloween Horror Nights 31 mobile app, I could hardly contain my excitement. It hadn’t been long since I had built my own homebrew HHN game, and I’d had an amazing experience learning from Universal’s team at their hackathon back in 2015. My plate was full with other projects, but I begged (and was welcomed) to help in any way I could.
There was plenty of work to do. The app included sponsored food and beverage informational content. It featured custom trivia for each of the event’s haunted mazes. Then there was Cursed Alliance, an entire location-based mobile game that let guests join a Universal classic monster and compete to win against other guests during each night of the event.
I participated in game design meetings, helped strategize around UI/UX concerns, and drafted copy. I toured under-construction haunted mazes to gather tidbits for the in-app trivia game. Having some experience with location-based games at Universal, I helped plot the trigger points for Cursed Alliance‘s augmented reality portals. Once the game was ready, I went on-site in both Hollywood and Orlando to test and refine the placement of all location-based game elements.
Best of all was watching the game launch and the leaderboards start to fill up. I was so pleased with the final product – and grateful for the opportunity.
Read more about Cursed Alliance on the HHN wiki!