ICE
CASE STUDY
Studio / Portfolio / Ice Fishing
RBKAVIN Studio × Snap Spectacles

Ice
Fishing

Snap Spectacles Phone-as-controller Hyper-casual AR Game
60sGame loop
6DOFPhone controller
2025Built on Spectacles
The brief

A frozen lake you can
fish with your phone.

Self-initiated. The goal was to explore what a hyper-casual game feels like on Snap Spectacles, using the phone-as-controller interaction that the platform supports. No client, no campaign brief. Just a question: can spatial AR be genuinely fun and low-stakes at the same time?

Ice fishing is the right metaphor for that: patient, tactile, a little absurd. You place a frozen lake on your floor, pick up your phone like a fishing rod, and try to catch as many fish as you can in sixty seconds.

An AR hyper-casual game on Snap Spectacles. The user places the frozen lake using world understanding, then swipes down to cast and swipes up to reel in. A custom rope physics system makes the line respond to motion in real time, and the score is how many you pull up.

Platform
Snap Spectacles
Role
Solo project, concept and full development
Controller
Phone-as-controller via 6DOF tracking
Game loop
Cast and reel in sixty seconds
Outcome
Shipped and featured by Snap, showcased at LensFest
In the space

A frozen lake in real space,
sixty seconds to fish.

Video
Snap Spectacles
Click to play
Ice Fishing on Snap Spectacles with a frozen lake and phone-as-controller Snap Spectacles
Ice Fishing frozen lake placed on the floor
Ice Fishing fish moving beneath the ice
Process

The platform gave the controller.
The game had to earn it.

01
The platform gave the controller
Spectacles supports the phone as a 6DOF controller natively. Most people treat it as a pointer. Fishing needed a believable physical connection between that motion and the in-world rope.
02
Rope made the metaphor
Bone simulation was not working on Spectacles, so the rope had to be rebuilt from scratch. Instead of a static line, custom shaders and an alternative weight-based simulation produced a rope that felt tactile. The constraint kept the fishing rod metaphor consistent from controller to object.
03
Sixty seconds as a game rule
Sixty seconds is a design decision, not an arbitrary timer. On glasses, there is no pause, no save state, and no comfortable seating. The limit keeps the game satisfying, short, and score-driven. It is exactly why people return for a second cast.
The result

A hyper-casual game that shipped.
And got noticed.

Shipped Active on Snap Spectacles
Featured Snap promotion across social media content
LensFest Showcased at Snapchat's annual AR showcase event
Something fun is a harder brief
Fun is specific. Ice fishing works because the metaphor is immediately readable, the controller feels physical, and the stakes stay low enough that failure is funny.
Platform-native needs a physical metaphor
The 6DOF phone controller is the platform feature. Fishing made it meaningful. Without the metaphor, users are tracking their phone in space. With it, they are fishing.
Workarounds sometimes produce better outcomes
Bone simulation failing on Spectacles was a blocker. The rope had to be rebuilt with custom shaders and an alternative weight-based simulation that kept the same tactile feel.
Hyper-casual is a natural fit for spatial AR
Most Spectacles content at launch leaned toward productivity, art tools, or tech demos. Ice Fishing was one of the first purely casual game experiences on the platform. Snap's organic promotion confirmed there was appetite.
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