TURN WAITING INTO GAMING: LOOPED
BY POLYAI BREAKS THE HOLD MUSIC HELL

PolyAI wanted to transform the painful "on hold" experience into something genuinely enjoyable. From Glenn Catteeuw's meticulous tile-by-tile design in Figma, we developed a custom game engine built on Three.js that brings his pixel art vision to life.

Each game element was designed to be simple enough to pick up instantly, yet compelling enough to make waiting time fly by. Finding the right balance between difficulty and engagement was crucial - every movement needed to be fluid, responsive, and rewarding.

Each game character and element was meticulously designed to be both visually striking and technically efficient. Glenn designed the entire maze and character set in Figma—tile by tile—before exporting texture atlases with TexturePacker.

We developed a custom sprite animation system that delivers fluid movement while minimizing memory usage and loading times - critical for a game that needs to launch instantly when someone's placed on hold.

The interface design needed to accomplish several challenging goals simultaneously: be instantly intuitive, visually consistent with PolyAI's brand, and provide clear feedback without overwhelming the player.

Theatre.js played a key role in our creative workflow, giving Glenn real-time control to fine-tune visual effects like vignette and glitch distortions. We used Howler.js to weave in dynamic sound design, adding depth and immersion that brings the maze—and its many surprises—to life.