Pioneering through invisibility: Melanie Langlotz’s augmented reality journey

Boxers & Briefs Podcast #18: Gaming for Good: Behind Geo AR with Melanie Langlotz

Few entrepreneurs have had the vision and tenacity to persist with an idea that was initially dismissed as impossible. For Melanie Langlotz, founder and CEO of Geo AR Games, creating augmented reality experiences that encourage children to play outdoors required not just technical innovation but the resilience to overcome scepticism, funding challenges, and the unique hurdles that come with pioneering invisible technology.

From reluctant entrepreneur to AR visionary

Despite growing up with an entrepreneurial father, Melanie initially had no desire to follow in his footsteps. “I watched him and it totally didn’t appeal to me… I just decided I do not want to do what he did, like seeing him stressed out all the time about taxes and trying to figure out what the market was going to buy,” she recalls.

Instead, she pursued a career in the creative arts, specifically in the film industry. It wasn’t until her 40s that Melanie decided to study entrepreneurship through SIT (Southern Institute of Technology), taking advantage of their zero-fee business degree programme, which she enthusiastically recommends to aspiring entrepreneurs.

The turning point came during her application when she confronted a pivotal question: What problem did she want to solve? After three weeks of reflection, inspiration struck from an unexpected source – her seven-year-old stepdaughter, who had suddenly lost interest in visiting parks in favour of computer games.

“She turned seven and all of a sudden parks were boring, she didn’t want to go anymore… she decided that computer games were cooler,” Melanie explains. Concerned about her stepdaughter’s increasing screen time and the resulting health issues like back pain, Melanie envisioned combining the physical world of parks with the engaging elements of gaming through augmented reality (AR).

Building the world’s first AR playground

With her background in the film industry and an eye for emerging technologies, Melanie identified augmented reality as the next frontier in entertainment. In 2011, she began developing the concept of an AR playground that would entice children back to parks by overlaying digital content onto real-world environments.

While working as General Manager at Images and Sound, a post-production studio, Melanie pitched her idea to her bosses, who were bewildered by the concept. “They were like, ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about… virtual real what?'” However, some of the studio’s artists grasped her vision, with one art director creating concept art that Melanie still treasures today.

Her journey led her to join a startup called OGVR, which specialised in geospatial augmented reality for infrastructure and road workers. After explaining her vision to the CEO, they reached an agreement: Melanie would take a pay cut in exchange for the opportunity to experiment with the technology to build her playground.

By 2012-2013, she had developed her first prototype and tested it with children in Victoria Park, Auckland. The results were telling: “I remember this moment where I gave my phone to a 14-year-old… and there was this giant, enormous, life-size T-Rex coming for him, and he started screaming and yelling and running through the park, ‘Oh my God, there’s a T-Rex! Watch out!’ It was just so funny.“

The reality of being too far ahead of the curve

When Melanie and her business partner Amy (who later became her co-founder) began seeking investment, they faced consistent rejection. Investors told them they were ‘insane’ because, in their words, ‘nobody in their right mind is going to run around with a phone in front of their face outside.’

This was before Pokémon Go revolutionised mobile gaming in 2016, demonstrating the mass appeal of location-based AR experiences. Despite knowing about Pokémon Go’s development, Melanie and Amy couldn’t convince investors of the potential market for their idea.

After participating in business incubators in Chile and Wellington, they pivoted from their initial monetisation strategy. Rather than selling virtual playgrounds directly to consumers, they approached local councils. Although they had originally hoped to charge £60,000 for a three-month installation (based on the cost comparison to building a physical playground), they adjusted their expectations when Wellington City Council offered £25,000 per year.

“At least they’re not laughing us out of the room… at least they’re taking us seriously, at least they’re giving us money. That is validation; we need to get validation, so let’s start with that,” Melanie recalls thinking.

Learning through challenge

Working with council clients brought unexpected challenges, particularly around reporting. What Melanie and her team hadn’t fully appreciated was the council’s responsibility to show ratepayers how their money was being spent. This meant providing detailed analytics for each park installation – a process that wasn’t initially automated.

“Imagine every weekend 150 cities come to you and say, ‘I would like to have my data, my analytics data for the weekend,’ and nothing was automated… all of a sudden we were just pulling data non-stop and couldn’t do any sales, marketing, and improvements anymore.“

This bottleneck taught Melanie an important lesson about understanding client needs and establishing clear partnership agreements. Councils needed analytics, and Geo AR Games needed to automate this process. Additionally, councils needed to take responsibility for marketing these ‘invisible’ playgrounds to their communities.

“Augmented reality playgrounds are invisible… and you cannot expect that if you book it, everybody will find out about it if you don’t do marketing,” she explains.

Values-driven growth

Throughout all these challenges, Melanie and her team maintained a strong commitment to their core values, which Amy had established from the beginning: no advertising, no in-game monetisation, no data mining, violence-free content, and gender-neutral games.

These principles became a checklist against which all opportunities were evaluated. Even when tempting corporate partnerships arose, the team carefully considered whether they aligned with their values or risked ‘greenwashing’ their brand.

When Amy eventually decided to leave the business, Melanie went through what she describes as ‘a divorce’ and experienced depression. To cope, she returned to caregiving work – something she had done since she was 16 – which unexpectedly led to meeting her current partner, with whom she’s now been for six years.

The working holiday approach to entrepreneurship

One of Melanie’s most valuable insights for entrepreneurs is the concept of taking ‘working holidays’ throughout the journey. Recognising that building a successful business typically takes around ten years, she advocates for maintaining stamina by occasionally stepping away from the day-to-day operations.

During her own journey, Melanie took several such breaks: six months with Datacom as a producer for AR and VR, and a year with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited as a digital growth specialist. These experiences provided financial breathing room, fresh perspectives, and opportunities for team growth.

“Every single time I did that, the team grew,” she notes. “But that wasn’t going to happen, I think, if I had stayed within… tunnel vision.“

Being able to step back and view the business objectively allowed Melanie to see opportunities for pivoting and innovation that might otherwise have been missed when caught in the stress of daily operations.

Pivoting toward greater impact

Today, Geo AR Games has evolved significantly from its initial concept. Through their work with over 140 cities worldwide, Melanie and her team identified common challenges faced by urban areas: climate change action, disaster preparedness, financial literacy, and more.

“Every single city we work with… every city told us, ‘We’ve got the same problem, can you do something about it? Help us.’ And so we would start to create simulation games for the topics.“

This led to a pivot where Geo AR Games now functions as an enabler, creating simulation games that help governments communicate important messages to their communities. They’re certified as an impact business through Ākina, which requires them to measure and report on their social and environmental outcomes.

For Melanie, this shift has reinforced the importance of value engineering – building products with a focus on adding value for customers by understanding their priorities and helping them achieve their goals.

The three pillars of business success

When asked about her top priorities in running a business, Melanie identifies three key elements:

1. Her team: “If I look after my team, they not only look after me but they look after the business… that translates into some really high quality, into some innovation, and just some really good work and a great climate to work in.“
2. Values: These guide not only what the company does but also how it resolves conflicts and determines where to pivot. The entire team recently agreed on ‘good vibes’ as a core value that encompasses their approach to both internal and external interactions.
3. Value engineering: Understanding client needs and priorities, and focusing on adding value in everything they do. “We are the partner for our client who helps them achieve whatever it is that they need to have as an outcome.“

Navigating privacy and safety in the digital age

Working with councils and government departments means that privacy and safety considerations are paramount, especially when dealing with children’s data. Melanie’s team approaches every digital product with careful consideration of potential vulnerabilities: “How could somebody hack it? How could somebody get the data? What sort of data are we collecting, and how could somebody be identified?“

One mentor from the City of Melbourne provided valuable advice that echoes through the business: “Whatever you do, think about it in a way that what could be the worst headline on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow morning because there’s something you didn’t do enough about.“

This approach leads them to rigorous testing with focus groups and communities, embodying their philosophy of building with communities rather than for them.

Finding success in team culture

For Melanie, success isn’t measured by financial metrics or client acquisition alone. When asked about the moment she felt she’d ‘made it,’ she points to a recent interaction with a senior developer who told her, “If there was one person I would want to work for full-time employed, it would be you.“

This feedback validated Melanie’s goal of being the best CEO she could be by creating a space where her team could thrive and feel empowered. It reinforced her belief that business success comes from building a team that supports each other through challenges and celebrates achievements together.

“It isn’t about money, it isn’t about the clients, it is about providing a really good workspace for your team and then getting amazing feedback from clients and from the players,” she reflects.

From reluctant entrepreneur to pioneering AR innovator, Melanie Langlotz’s journey demonstrates the power of persistence, adaptability, and values-driven leadership. Her story offers valuable lessons for anyone navigating the unpredictable terrain of technological innovation and business growth.

This article is proudly brought to you by Gilligan Sheppard, the problem solvers in business who believe in thinking differently.