It’s time to highlight another member of our amazingly talented and diverse 8th Wall developer community. Meet Beatriz Junquera, an experienced 3D artist who’s done work for Link9, Hasbro and the WWE. Recently Beatriz won an Honorable Mention Prize during the VPS Developer Challenge. 

Halloween isn’t just a night for kids to collect candy — it’s a season where imagination runs wild and where the boundaries of reality blur. It’s just the right season for developers, brands, and agencies to create WebAR experiences that engage audiences in immersive, interactive ways that traditional marketing can’t match. 

This year, take your Halloween campaigns to new heights with 8th Wall's suite of groundbreaking tools, including all-new features like Sky Effects and World Tracking, enhanced Face Effects, Shared AR, Hand Tracking, and our latest GenAI Modules. 

From skies adorned with witches flying to faces morphed into ghouls and hands that cast eerie spells, let's explore a few ideas on how developers, brands, and agencies can use these powerful new features to craft bewitching experiences that linger in the minds of audiences long past the holiday.

Combine Sky Effects and World Tracking with GenAI Modules to bring spooky campfire tales to life
Are you afraid of the dark? With WebAR, developers can create experiences that bring this question to life and harken back to the spooky ghost stories and terrifying tales around the campfire. 

Using our new GenAI Modules powered by OpenAI and Inworld AI, developers can let audiences craft their own haunting tales on the spot. As the story comes to life, Sky Effects and World Tracking can bring the spooky elements to another life by having the sky dynamically change to match the campfire story or by placing spooky elements in the scene. 

In the dynamic realm of augmented reality (AR), the possibilities are limitless. Today, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the 8th Wall x Hope for Haiti Challenge, a platform for developers to showcase their ingenuity and contribute to the evolution of immersive experiences. What makes this challenge truly exceptional is our collaboration with Hope for Haiti, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives in Haiti. This collaboration extends beyond the realm of technology, as we join hands to raise funds for their ambitious new Healthcare Campus. We’re aiming for 1,000 donations of any monetary value and we can’t wait to see the awesome experiences you develop! 

Chobani is conjuring up a bewitching Halloween experience for families and individuals alike. Just in time for the spookiest season of the year, Chobani® Flip® 4-packs are getting a playful makeover, complete with festive packaging and an immersive AR experience. 

Over the last few years, brands have relied on 8th Wall to create unique, WebAR experiences that delight and engage audiences - especially around holiday moments. As we prepare for another Halloween filled with tricks, treats, and augmented haunts, we’re taking a look back at the WebAR campaigns that have spooked and delighted us in years past. 

Coca-Cola's Halloween Collection at USC

Coca-Cola took the University of Southern California (USC) campus by storm with its Halloween Collection, transforming real-world vending machines into virtual treat dispensers. Students could fill their virtual bags with a myriad of goodies, including AR masks, NFTs, apparel, and concert tickets. This campaign made use of Lightship VPS for Web, a Visual Positioning System developed by Niantic as well as Lightship Maps for Web. It's one of the first commercial projects that integrated augmented reality into physical locations with pinpoint accuracy.

In August, we launched an exciting collaboration challenge with Ingress challenging developers to create immersive multiplayer Shared AR experiences! This challenge helped developers learn how to build with Shared AR, foster connections with fellow developers and the 8th Wall team, and compete for prizes worth over $10,000.

We’re excited to begin highlighting the diverse and extremely talented members of the 8th Wall developer community through our Developer Spotlight series. First is Peter Locharernkul, Immersive Engineer at Brightline Interactive. Recently, Peter won the “Community Favorite” award for his immersive experiences in the Modules Challenge and the VPS challenge!

We are thrilled to introduce a fresh challenge to the 8th Wall community! During the month of August, we invite you to create Shared AR for Web using Ingress, Niantic’s very first IP game, for a chance to win prizes worth over $10K!