One week, no script. I mapped the Galaxy Note features as puzzle mechanics before the story existed, in a 4-minute loop that revealed the phone through play, not advertising.
S Pen, camera, and multi-window became survival tools on an island. The challenge was to feel like play, not advertising.
A collaboration with Escape 60. I defined how to turn device features into puzzle mechanics carrying narrative and product proof at once.
Make a launch feel like discovery: every feature emerging through gameplay, not instruction.
Four minutes. One loop. Everything had to be completable in the window. Ruthless architecture wasn't a principle, it was a requirement.
Features first, script second. The vocabulary came before the narrative, so design shaped the story.
The narrative wasn't finished and I had one week to deliver wireframes. Standard process assumes a defined brief; here I inverted it.
I mapped feature to interaction before anything visual. If the S Pen exists, what puzzle requires writing? If the camera exists, what clue needs a lens?
I influenced the script instead of designing to it. The interaction vocabulary existed before the story, so the copywriters had a framework to write into.
A player shouldn't be able to imagine this game on another phone. The features weren't demonstration, they were structure. Remove one and the game collapses.
The player writes the solution with the S Pen to unlock the clue. The writing is the story, not the feature.
Each loop reveals a new layer. The player feels progress across resets: mastery, not repetition.
I divided the world into zones, each with one active riddle. Spatial navigation organizes cognitive load: complexity hidden in geography.
I designed conversation and riddle with distinct visual registers, so both could coexist without competing for attention.
With the script in hand the challenge turned structural: transferring the narrative into a precise interface, no dead ends.
I built the first prototype at low fidelity to test timing, completability, and clarity before any visual polish.
I timed every screen against the loop. What couldn't be completed in time was redesigned or removed. The clock was the brief.
Six users tested the prototype. I wasn't after aesthetic feedback, I was after where they slowed down and where the logic broke.
The same prototype became engineering spec: triggers, transition logic, and state changes annotated.
The architecture defined spatial logic and hierarchy. The visual brought the atmosphere of a world worth exploring.
Cards, overlays, and viewfinders carried dual meaning: narrative object and product feature.
Samsung produced a dedicated video case study. When the product is the experience, the audience stops being an audience.
The absence of a script was an opportunity. The most important work came before the first wireframe: building the vocabulary everything would be written into.
The 96% didn't come from clever visual design. It came from precise interaction architecture, where every element was narrative and product proof at once.