This deep dive from Polygon explores what happened when Niantic, the creators of Pokémon Go, teamed up with the theater company Punchdrunk, to develop an in-person game that blended tech and the surrounding environment.
But the experience, which involved having players interact with actors on the street and looking for hidden objects, never came to fruition due to concerns about safety and costs:
“The number one challenge was always safety,” wrote former general manager of Niantic’s Los Angeles studio Greg Borrud in an email interview with Polygon. “We were always looking for ways to push the limits while still keeping safety at the forefront. We knew we had to test the boundaries to see where they were during development. But we also knew we had to reel things back in as we looked to put a live product out there.”
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