King Of Cards
Read the story- Brand
- Windows Phone
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Me And My Friends
- With
- Wunderman Poland
- With
- Microsoft
Objective
Microsoft built King of Cards to show off what its Lumia phones could do, not to sell a game. The pitch was that augmented reality and local multiplayer could run just as smoothly on a budget Lumia 535 as on the flagship Lumia 930, making the case that even Microsoft's cheapest handset was a capable, forward-looking device.
Solution
The player opens the free app, prints a marker sheet from inside it, and lays the paper on a table. Pointing the phone's camera at the sheet turns the tabletop into a battlefield: a virtual card board appears on screen, and as cards are drawn, medieval fighters climb out of them and duel in 3D over the real table. It plays like the classic game of War — whoever draws the higher card wins the round — either solo against a simple computer opponent or head-to-head with a friend, with both phones joined to the same WiFi network and pointed at one shared marker so they see the same fight play out. Scores are saved and can be compared afterward. There are no ads and nothing to buy — the session just ends when the deck runs out.
- 1
The player downloads King of Cards free from the Windows Phone Store and launches it on a Lumia phone into the game's main menu; there is no price, no ads, and no in-app purchases.
- 2
From Settings the player downloads a printable marker sheet, either printing it on paper or displaying it on another device's screen, then lays it on a table or other flat surface so the phone camera can recognise it as the game table.
- 3
The player chooses to face a simple AI opponent alone, or to play a friend on a nearby Windows Phone by connecting both phones to the same WiFi network and sharing the one printed marker.
- 4
Looking through the camera, the player sees real-time 3D graphics overlaid on the live camera image, with a virtual table and cards appearing to stand on the real surface in front of them.
- 5
Each turn the player plays a card and watches its character — a medieval fighter unique to that card — climb out and duel the opponent's character on the virtual table; the round follows the rule of War, so the higher-value card wins it.
- 6
After a match, the player can save the result and compare their score against other players.
