The Project

The Family Game Show

Google invited outracoisa* to create a voice version of the traditional game Stop, and the result was a game show experience where the contestants are friends and families who come together to have fun. This was the first of many voice experiences developed by outracoisa*, from designing the conversation architecture and defining the voice personalities, to implementing them within Google Assistant.

The Challenge

We never forget our first voice product

A outracoisa* had been working on conversational products for four years, but designing the first "voice-first" experience isn't as simple as it might seem, and Adedonha was a learning experience for the entire team. As the first of dozens of voice projects we've done, some of the fundamentals of this modality we use to this day were tested and defined in this project. What's the right level of complexity? Or the right amount of reliance on the graphical interface? And what about the right degree of personality and humor for the character? These were some of the questions we faced when designing Action, in addition to all the technical challenges of a platform that wasn't yet 100% stable.

The Process

Gameplay and Architecture

The game design was based on the traditional game where we put our hands in front of us with a number of fingers and counted to find the letter drawn, but it was also based on the "Stop" app from Fanatee, our content partner for the game. The process involved many rounds of experimenting with different versions of the game to find the best way to play using voice. Often, one of us played the role of the robot while the rest of the team simulated the participants, and it was common for some hypotheses that worked perfectly in the traditional game and in the app to not translate well in voice action.

A fun fact: Until halfway through the project, the product name was supposed to be Stop. That's when we discovered that this was a global command for voice devices that served to close the application and therefore couldn't be the name of the game. So we suggested the name Adedanha, which was familiar to us from childhood, but we learned that in almost all of Brazil the name is Adedonha, except in Rio de Janeiro. The name still sounds strange to this day for the outracoisa* team, but it won over the majority ;-)

Product Key

Two’s company, three’s a crowd

In any voice product, the decision to use the robot's default voice or a studio-recorded voice is important. Robot voices are still limited in emotion and intonation, but they are flexible, giving the project agility and allowing for an infinite range of responses. Studio voices, on the other hand, bring more personality but require each response to be recorded, limiting the process.

In the case of Adedonha, the voice would have to reproduce a huge variety of responses, categories, and letters, which would make it impossible to do 100% in the studio. Thus, the idea arose for the game to be led by a pair of characters. John, the protagonist, would be a Silvio Santos-style talk show host, with a hand-picked voice recorded in the studio. He would have a robotic assistant, named Ed, who would read the category and word cards, using a robotic voice. We created a fun dynamic relationship between the two, which would become the product's most memorable element.

The Solution

Game Modes

Adedonha launched with two game modes, chosen from more than 10 possible options. In "Hot Potato" mode, ideal for playing in cars or in the family room, players can play with others present in the same room. In "Time Attack" mode, users play against a virtual opponent. A key decision was to display a timer and remove the "stop" command, which means someone completes all categories. While this contradicts the original game, the round-ending command would have presented numerous technical and logical problems.

Results

The best part was playing later

Adedonha is still an experimental project, as the practice of playing via voice is still in its infancy and will only grow in the coming years. People report different experiences playing, and it's necessary to get used to the demands of the environment: clearer speech, the silence of other participants, and the patience to wait for the right moment to speak. But once you've gotten used to it, Adedonha is pure fun. Give it a try!