NYT Launches AR Crossword on Instagram - The New York Times

The New York Times is introducing its well-known crossword puzzles into the realm of augmented reality. The media organization revealed this morning the launch of a new AR-enabled game, “Shattered Crosswords,” on Instagram. This allows players to decipher clues by locating rotating, fragmented crossword pieces within an AR environment. Achieving the correct perspective will reveal the words concealed amongst the puzzle’s broken sections.

The game’s core mechanic shares similarities with other three-dimensional puzzle games, such as Polysphere, where players rotate fractured components to reveal a complete image. However, The NYT has integrated the entire gaming experience with augmented reality technology.

According to the company, the new game was developed utilizing Facebook’s Spark AR platform, marking the first instance of The NYT creating an AR-based gaming experience.

Nevertheless, this is not the first time The NYT has explored AR technology.

Earlier this year, The NYT announced a long-term partnership with Facebook centered on publishing a series of AR-enhanced reports on Instagram. These reports will leverage AR technology to present stories in a more visually engaging and interactive format. To facilitate these initiatives, The NYT also established its own AR Lab, staffed by over a dozen individuals working in conjunction with a dedicated newsroom team to produce AR journalistic content.

To this point, the Lab has contributed to visual narratives concerning the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, the scientific basis for face mask effectiveness, and reporting on the California wildfires.

The NYT had previously begun experimenting with AR in earlier years, though not in collaboration with Facebook. For instance, in 2018, it announced plans to incorporate augmented reality into its storytelling within its native iOS and Android applications.

Prior to this launch, The NYT presented “live solves” of its crossword puzzles on social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, as a means of engaging with players. However, these were viewing experiences and not independent games or AR-based applications.

Despite this innovation, the new game may have limited broad appeal, functioning primarily as an interesting demonstration of AR capabilities from The NYT. The puzzle’s small size and simplicity may not attract dedicated crossword enthusiasts, and the process of discovering clues within the fragments can become cumbersome due to the required gestures and movements. Our testing also revealed it doesn’t operate with the same fluidity as a game like Polysphere.

It remains to be seen whether players will regularly return to this type of puzzle compared to conventional mobile games or the traditional crossword format.

The “Shattered Crosswords” game can be found on The NYT’s Instagram profile page, located under the “Effects” tab, alongside the company’s other AR reports. It is compatible with both iOS and Android devices.