Design principles for great AR games

Design principles forgreat AR games

Wendelin Reich, PHDFounder & CEO

Virtualbeings.co

AR gaming is already here, right ?

January 21, 2016 2Desigining great AR games | wendelin reich

Ingress (niantic labs / Google) Pokemon Go

Let's be clear about two things

1. Definitions 2. Great ar doesnt exist yet

●AR and VR: cognitive terms

●Precise “registration” (not GPS)

●Not every AR game is actually AR (But it will be here soon)


AR tech 1/3 : marker-based tracking


●Vuforia (Qualcomm, PTC), Kudan, Metaio, …●Marker must be in FOV

CastAR

AR tech 2/3 : Head-mounted displays


Microsoft HoloLens

Daqri Smart Helmet

Meta AR

AR tech 3/3 : touchscreen devices


Project Tango Devkit (Google)

RealSense/Tango devkit (Intel + Google)

Who will win ?


●HMD vs Handheld: both may be useful

●Don't forget the form factor:

What do I do with AR ?


Demo


How close are we to hi-fi AR gaming ?


1) Lag, drift, noise (Demo)

2) Field-of-view (for HMDs)

3) Occlusion (Magic Leap!)

There are at least 5 remaining technical challenges

4) Collision

5) Light

Dealing with the unknown setting


●Can your game be played in any setting ?

●Does the scale of your game fit the world ?●This can be faked in handheld AR●Delta camera vs absolute camera

●Do you deal with occlusion ?

●Do you deal with dynamic changes ?

Scale matters...


(PS : will Minecraft work at toy scale?)

Dealing with the constrained player


• Unlike VR, free player movement is feasible in AR

• But not always practical!

• As in VR, this is an opportunity !

Dealing with the constrained player


• Unlike VR, free player movement is feasible in AR

• But not always practical!

• As in VR, this is an opportunity !

I expect you to die

(Schell Games)

Consraining the unconstrained player


• You cannot constrain player rotation

• You cannot constrain player movement

• One trick : markers

• Handle player collisions with geometry

And now the$1.000.000 question


What is fun in AR ?


Let's focus on indoor scenarios


Alien Invasion (from Wetzel et al, Designing mobile AR games)

Fun 1/5 : Virtual toys


Transformers demo (Intel RealSense Tablet) Racing track (made of atoms, not bits)

Fun 2/5 : Virtual boardgames, pets


Jenga on Project Tango 'The kitten' on Project Tango

Fun 3/5 : Object-centered puzzles


Twisty Planets (Android)The Room 1-3 (iOS, Android)

Though not every puzzler will fit...


Shadowmatic (iOS)

Fun 4/5 : Anything that makes movement meaningful


(Remember that?)

Fun 5/5 : Games that mess with reality in interesting ways


(Surprise me! :-)

A final wish : please don't overpromise


HoloLens Minecraft 'demo'

Drakerz Kickstarter,

Expectations vs reality

… or this will happen


THANK YOU!


Wendelin Reich, PHDFounder & CEO

Virtualbeings.co

@wendelinreich@virtualbeings

[email protected]

Design principles for great AR games

Technology

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