Main internship project, SAP Experience Center
For my internship at SAP, I was tasked with creating an entirely new client experience from scratch: a digital, narrative-driven, interactive simulation designed to engage real SAP clients.
Summary
For my internship at SAP, I helped build Oceans Heist, a fully interactive, narrative-driven client experience for SAP’s Immersive Experience (IX) room. Clients take on the role of a hacker planning a bank heist, making strategic decisions at each stage that are shaped by real SAP software, turning business planning into a playful, high-stakes story with three possible endings.
Company
Challenge & Role
The project was brought to me mid-development: the lead designer, Fabienne, already had a rough concept and needed support building nearly the entire experience from the ground up, under serious time pressure. My role expanded across almost every part of the production, including environment design, UX flow, motion graphics, video production, and on-set coordination, working closely with Fabienne and the wider team throughout.
Key Factors
- Built a branching, multi-ending interactive experience from near scratch, within a tight timeline
- Solved several hard-technical constraints, including a room with a non-touchscreen wall that had to be worked around in the layout, and file sizes too large for standard studio hardware to handle
- Took on production responsibilities beyond design, including casting coordination, live-action filming, and studio liaison
- Sparked genuine audience engagement, with clients reportedly still discussing their in-session choices after the presentation ended
- Still in active use with real SAP clients today
Solution & Outcome
The experience unfolds across three connected spaces. In the Basement, clients plan the heist step by step across a wall of interactive screens. I designed the room layout to keep the presenter’s movement efficient despite one wall being unable to support touch interaction, solving it by assigning non-interactive demo content to that side of the room. Layered video techniques were used to combine looping ambient effects with pausable data feeds, a workaround for technical limits in SAP’s in-house platform, HYRO.
In the interview sequence, clients choose a fictional criminal teammate from a set of filmed “underworld interviews.” I contributed to the scripting, including inventing character codenames, coordinated the studio shoot across two days to accommodate a full cast, and designed video overlays to integrate the footage seamlessly into the room’s screens.
A live-action intro sequence was filmed in SAP’s own garage using a branded van. I managed on-site logistics, including cordoning the space, sourcing props, and coordinating actors, and later resolved a video formatting issue that had prevented the footage from displaying correctly in the room.
The Vault scene delivers one of three branching endings: success, failure, or betrayal, each triggered live by the presenter based on the client’s earlier choices. I designed the control panel, built the alarm and lighting effects, and created distinct visual payoffs for each ending, including a “hacked” security screen reveal for the betrayal path.
Following the first live client sessions, I implemented a round of refinements based on direct feedback, adjusting pacing, swapping content for better diversity, and sharpening key visual effects.
The experience received strong engagement from its first real audiences and remains part of SAP’s active Experience Center programming.
Full Experience
Tools & Skills Used
HYRO (SAP’s immersive platform) ✦ Photoshop ✦ Illustrator ✦ Premiere Pro ✦ After Effects ✦ Studio & production coordination
