Samsung Doorways (lost "Family Guy" AR game; 2018)

Title screen for the game.

Status: Lost

At the 2018 Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (or IFA), Samsung released Doorways, a game and an AR experience in collaboration with Fox's hit animated comedy, Family Guy, to take advantage of the AR capabilities in Samsung phones. The game was developed by MediaMonks and BBH London for Samsung.^[1]

Gameplay

The game required a Samsung phone with AR capabilities and was only playable at the IFA. The game is powered by Google's ARCore service. Before playing the game, players would have to scan their phone through a portal, which would then become a doorway to a virtual rendition of the Griffins' house. The game is played inside a room with yellow walls to simulate the layout of the Griffins' house, which is shown on the phone's screen.

As players navigate throughout the house, they have to help a hungover Peter do some tasks. The various tasks that characters like Lois or Stewie give out to the player for Peter also take advantage of the phone's interactivity with other Samsung smart products, for example, streaming a song from a Spotify playlist to a Samsung Smart TV from the Griffins' living room.^[2] The game's story was written in collaboration with writers from the show.

Availability

As the game was exclusive to IFA 2018, alongside its physical structure, and the show's eventual buyout by Disney, it is unlikely that it will receive a rerelease. The event was also considered to be at several locations following its debut at IFA 2018, but nothing has come out.

More entertainment properties would be considered for Doorways because of the success of the Family Guy event, but that also lead to nothing.^[3] The only known videos that still exist of the event are a case study from developer BBH London and a trailer on Vimeo, with music provided by Cavendish Music.