Gum mobile AR app

Gum is a world building app (developed internally at Unity) that lets social media content creators build surreal 3D worlds and scenes in AR. Creators can remix existing templates or creating new worlds from scratch by placing 3D content, apply effects, set up interactivity and film videos.

Showing world building, interactive templates, graphic effects and recorded video output made with Gum.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Authored lightweight 3D assets and implemented real-time animation sequences in Unity
• Setup custom shader-driven visuals for placeable assets
• Developed 3D customizable particle effects and authored unique materials to give each asset a distinct visual identity
• Ensured all assets were optimized for mobile performance

Built reusable templates composed of curated asset collections to demonstrate new product features, interaction patterns, and visual fidelity. They served as internal showcases to demonstrate value, usability, and product potential. The templates became a foundation for creating polished, high-quality video content with the app. They were also used in user research sessions to gather feedback on content and interactions which helped inform product direction.

LEARNINGS
• The user is the star
• Quality bar is high
• Avoid feet occlusion

PRODUCT LEARNINGS
• Value in accelerating creation time
• Building a user focused product
• Enabling creators with the right tools
• Less is more

NEXT STEPS
• Location based world AR experiences
• Premade templates (memes, pop culture, etc)
• Long term capabilities (mobile to HMD)