Earth to Mars: A Journey Through the Plant Hall is an AR (Augmented Reality) app developed by a team of high school students for the Field Museum's Plant Hall. Using transmission beacons placed within the hall and any mobile technology (such as iPhones, Android phones, or iPads), players are led from exhibit to exhibit, choosing the plants that they believe can help the effort on Mars.

The app, available on iPhones and Android devices, was designed to increase traffic to the Plant Hall and teach visitors about the importance and diversity of plants. Earth to Mars includes location-based scavenger hunt challenges, a choice-driven narrative, and audio recordings of all text.

I served as an instructor for the students during their design of Earth to Mars. I taught them the fundamentals of game design, guided brainstorm sessions, and initiated critical discourse surround games in general and Earth to Mars in particular. I participated in the game design process as well, and act as the narrator for the story.

In the year 3005, Earth's population has grown such that it cannot support the human race any longer. Players take on the roles of recently recruited botanists tasked with choosing the most useful and unique plants from the Field Museum Plant Hall. With the help of lead scientist Bill Chlorophyll, the players must learn about the biodiversity of plants on Earth, make their choices, and save humanity by terraforming Mars.

Using the TaleBlazer app and a mobile device, players interact with photos, written and recorded dialogue, quizzes, and difficult choices between which plants to take to Mars. Players are required to interact with the exhibits in the Plant Hall to learn about those plants, and beacons hidden through the hall communicate with the bluetooth technologies of players' mobile devices to communicate different narrative events. For instance, when trying to get through narrow entrance of the hall, players encounter a security guard to tests their knowledge on a nearby pineapple exhibit.