Tag: ar gaming

This new mobile game will come from Magic Leap, at a time when many thought it might not arrive.

Magic Leap, an augmented reality company backed by Google, has now released a video that suggests that it will be producing a much awaited steampunk shooter game, despite the fact that it had appeared that it was withdrawing from public sight, for a while.

The company had been stepping back from public appearances for a while, leaving some to build doubts.

For example, earlier this month, the CEO of Magic Leap, Rony Abovitz, had been slated to make an appearance at TED in order to discuss the work at the augmented reality company, which is always held behind a veil of secrets, as a policy. At the last minute, Magic Leap withdrew from that and all of its other public appearances without giving any explanation for having done so. As of the time of the writing of this article, the company still hadn’t provided an explanation for its actions, but it did release the video that was supposed to have been shown at the appearance.

This video showed a steampunk shooter based mobile game that uses augmented reality as a part of its experience.

Andy Fouché, the PR head at Magic Leap, wrote that “This is a game we’re playing around the office right now (no robots were harmed in the making of this video).” That represented the most detail that the public has received about an actual project being created by Magic Leap.

This mobile game has familiar Dr. Grordbort branding, a line of guns in a kind of steampunk style, comics, and a range of other products. Dr. Grordbort was first created by a Weta Workshop artist. That workshop has been partnered with Magic Leap for some time now, and its branding also appears within the video.

The concept of this mobile gaming experience pretty much boils down to an augmented reality robot-shooter in which actual decorative guns are converted into “working” weapons in the digital reality. They are aimed at virtual enemies that appear as projections within the actual physical space around the player. The video also revealed a number of other images of the Magic Leap interface, which included a range of different floating components such as YouTube videos and Gmail icons.

A new company aims to transform video games into real-world experiences.

Semblance Augmented Reality is a company created by Mark Skwarek and the goal of the company is to free video games from a mere television experience and turn them into one that is physical, where a person can interact with an entire world of virtual characters, structures and objects in a real environment.

So far, Skwarek has managed to raise more than $30,000 in crowdfunding to launch Semblance.

Having raised over $30 thousand on Kickstarter, the group fundraising site, Skwarek is gearing up to release the first Semblance AR app for Android and iOS mobile phones. He recently demonstrated how the app works in New York City wearing Epson Moverio B200 glasses.

Although augmented reality (AR) is not a new concept, nor is the idea of combining AR with gaming, it is starting to become more mainstream due to an increase in popularity of wearable devices, such as smart glasses, smartwatches and fitness trackers. Furthermore, today, there is a wide range of mobile devices that are finally equipped with GPS tracking, camera technology and sensors that are strong enough to handle AR tech.

While AR tech can certainly improve upon a video gamer’s experience, use for this technology is also being explored in other areas where combining augmented reality with wearables could help solve practical problems hands-free. It is even showing promising results in the health sector.

According to Brian Ballard, CEO and founder of APX Labs, an AR software company, wearables will help empower deskless employees in the same way that mobile devices and computers have done for office workers. Wearable gadgets, like smart glasses, can provide workers with immediate access to information in real-time no matter where they are.

Augmented reality technology is not without its challenges.

According to Benjamin Arnold, a consumer tech analyst at the NPD Group, “The technology is here right now. It’s just implementing them in a product, showing consumers that it has a value and can do things better than they were doing before.”

However, one of the problems this tech faces is that internet connectivity and battery life of devices needs to be improved in order to make it efficient. However, Ballard believes that it will not be long before it becomes fully integrated into people’s lives. This may be particularly true for video gamers due to the success of augmented reality gaming apps like Skwarek’s.