Qualcomm announced an Augmented Reality SDK and its ramping up with a Developer Challenge, they will accept just 25 developers to beta test the program. After the beta has concluded, a developer challenge with $200,000 in prizes will open and we’ll get to see the victors at Mobile World Congress 2011. During the Keynote Paul Jacobs showed off 2 demos featuring Rockem’ Sockem’ from Mattel and a demo from Unity. Below is Sascha’s walk through with what is proposed to be the future of gaming.
I have to admit that I have been following Augmented Reality for a few years and I found this demo incredibly linear. The technology has advanced, the detail on the robots is great and the amount of trackers needed for an image to appear is far less then before, I think they told me 60-70% of the trackers could be obstructed and game play could still continue.
I’m not disputing that visually the games were stunning, what has me shaking my head is the value proposition of using a mobile device was muted by anchoring the game to a singular location, the game board. The whole point of augmenting reality is that you interact with your physical environment. Creating a game board is taking the mobile out of mobile gaming. “Hold on, let me take out this huge piece of cloth so we can play this game that kind seems like as a run of the mill peer to peer game” Yeah, I’m not sold. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been following AR for 2 years now and I love it! I just don’t think these were the best examples to highlight the strength of this emerging technology.
The only good thing about such linear examples of Augmented Reality gaming is that it set the bar very low people who have been working in AR for years. Two years ago while covering the International Mobile Gaming Awards I discovered GHOSTWIRE and I was in love!
GHOSTWIRE is a collection- and adventure game, where you use your handheld device to communicate with ghosts. You use your portable device as a portal to the astral plane to find and collect the ghosts that exist all around you. In your quest you use real tools, such as the built-in camera and microphone, as well as abstract ones like an “EMF tuner” for tracking down the ghosts. The game play is intellectual as you get riddles to solve to help the ghosts find peace. Here is the trailer to give you a visual idea of what I’m talking about.
Augmented Reality is about thinking out of the box using location and imagination to truly augment your reality not create a 2.0 version of a board-game. I can’t wait to see what happens in Barcelona at MWC after they let everyone else at the AR SDK.
