Race to tomorrow
We've all rushed around at trade fairs, trying to catch the latest trends, shake hands with the key players, and grab the tastiest finger food. But are we really connecting with one another?
The Mission: Connecting People
One of the Nordic region's largest events for engineers is Ingenjörsdagen (Engineers' Day), an annual event organized by NyTeknik Group with the mission to bring together all kinds of engineers, inspire them, and foster networking. However, the latter is a challenge, given the limited timeframe and the diverse backgrounds of participants. Many attendees are even competitors vying for the same projects.
Ingenjörsdagen gave us the highly challenging task of inventing something that would lovingly force engineers to meet, get to know one another, and collaborate on building the future.
The Solution: A Race to Tomorrow
At Sticky Beat, we love inventing digital experiences that not only engage participants but also carry a vital “Why?” So, why do engineers exist? According to us, it's to shape a smart, sustainable, and human centric future together. And with today's challenges on the table, they need to move forward quickly as teams of innovators.
Thus, we invented Race to Tomorrow, a game where each participating engineer was placed in a team with three others, tasked with designing a car that could reach the finish line, or rather, the future as quickly as possible. This was achieved by discussing the car's design through an integrated chat or in person. For example, someone could enlarge the car's wheels to better handle obstacles, but then the suspension might need to be stiffer to prevent the car from bouncing uncontrollably and flipping over.
To participate, attendees scanned a QR code, entered their name and employer, and began working on the design. Naturally, we ensured that engineers were not paired with colleagues from the same workplacethey needed to network more! To compete, a team member visited our booth to test their car's performance on the game’s obstacle course.
The Technology: A Passionate Exploration
At Sticky Beat, we consider ourselves platform agnostic. Getting locked into a single platform is risky in the ever changing digital world we live in. That’s why we’re 100% curious, continuously testing new platforms and technical solutions to challenge ourselves and raise the bar for our creations. This time, we developed a solution that included, for example:
Godot
A versatile open source game engine that we had never worked with before. With Godot we simulated cars driving in a virtual environment based on the team’s customized settings.
Blender
Blender was used to design the car models and other assets for the project. Its versatility enabled us to quickly create high quality visuals.
Deno
We used Deno to handle real time communication and data management, ensuring a fast and secure backend for the project.
React
The web client, built in React, provided teams with an intuitive interface to customize their cars' settings and features. It also included a real time chat, enabling seamless realtime communication and collaboration throughout the process.
The Client
In this project, Sticky Beat takes on the dual role of both creator and client. From the very first spark of an idea to the final interactive experience, we owned the entire process. Being our own client gave us the freedom to explore bold concepts, experiment without limits, and shape the future of digital storytelling entirely on our own terms.
