Running Wild

What I did

In my role with Kinect Nat Geo TV, I faced one of the most technically demanding challenges of my career. This small but ambitious project required integrating a virtual 3D environment into real-world camera perspectives at an unprecedented scale. The 3D world generated on-screen had to mirror the actual room dimensions, but it needed to do so within a virtual space only a few millimeters deep. Every element in the 3D environment had to be compressed to fit within this minimal depth, achieving a “fake” perspective that maintained the illusion of depth and scale for users.

Reversing and refining this engineered space meant that every asset was reconfigured to adapt to Kinect’s limitations, resulting in a highly compressed “3D” layer that, though virtually flat, felt fully dimensional to players. This required precise calibration, extreme attention to spatial alignment, and innovative perspective manipulation to create a seamless blend between the physical and virtual worlds. The project stands as a testament to the complex, immersive designs achievable in gaming through ingenuity and technical precision, even on a smaller scale.

What is Running  Wild?

Kinect Nat Geo TV was an innovative, family-friendly game developed in collaboration with National Geographic, designed for Xbox 360 as part of Microsoft’s Kinect “playful learning” initiative. Blending real National Geographic wildlife footage with motion-controlled gameplay, the experience aimed to educate and entertain by transporting players into immersive natural settings. Using Kinect’s motion-sensing technology, players could step into animal roles and interact with environments modelled after National Geographic episodes, turning their living rooms into virtual habitats.

Through gesture-based controls, players engaged in various wildlife activities, like “becoming” a bear to hunt fish or exploring dense forests like other animals. This interactivity brought conservation education into an entirely new format, helping players—especially younger audiences—connect with nature and wildlife in a hands-on way. The game included educational content, making it as much an interactive TV experience as it was a game, offering both a fun and enriching family experience.

Trailers

Final Levels

Video of the gamev play