Pokemon Go has become a huge hit, thrusting augmented reality (AR) games in the spotlight. The intersection between imagination and real life has long been occupied by role-playing games, including Live Action Role-Playing and cosplay…but despite several attempts by some major publishers, a Pokemon Go-like game has yet to catch on with RPGs. Why not?
[h=3]Augmented Reality Goes Mainstream[/h]Augmented reality gaming has been around for some time, but Pokemon Go’s popularity is evidence that this form of entertainment has finally gone mainstream:
As AR games go, Pokemon Go isn’t that different from many other augmented reality games: players roam the physical world and engage in the game with a virtual overlay. Unlike some other AR games, there are no physical scanning requirements – Pokemon Go is entirely contained within its virtual overlay.
Pokemon Go’s immense popularity is due to the intersection of several factors:
[h=3]Replacing Miniatures with AR Cards[/h]Perhaps the most obvious application of AR to role-playing games is to replace miniatures. The first generation of AR used codes printed on cards that an app would recognize via a smartphone camera. The path to a successful launch of a AR tabletop game is littered with failed attempts, as we shall see.
The OggBoard was an early attempt at an AR game board in October 2011 with an goal of raising $45,000:
It netted just $1,877.
Monsterology was a successful launch of a AR-based card game in 2012. The game was an isometric view of terrain with a series of playing pieces, signified by cards, in a virtual environment. Players collected monsters in blind booster packs of three. The players slapped the card onto the device and, thanks to a special ink, the app recognized the monster and inserted it into the game. Nukotoys’ web site has since been taken down.
Darkling Plain was touted as a cross between D&D and Settlers of Catan:
If miniatures couldn’t be replaced with virtual doppelgangers, virtual doppelgangers could be replaced with miniatures. Enter Skylanders. There’s no virtual overlay per se – the figures have a chip that translates into a virtual doppelganger across any gaming platform – but Skylanders’ success encouraged Disney to create its own competitor with Disney Infinity…until it was shut down earlier this year.
That said, gamers have largely created their own AR overlays by using digital projection.
[h=3]Laser Tag Did it First[/h]The other opportunity for AR in role-playing is live-action integration. The first successful live-action AR implementationhas been around since the 80s:
The Incantor Kickstarter tried to address this very issue. Incantor was a real-world, mobile, fantasy-action game with all the depth and expandability of the big massive multi-player online role-playing games combined with the rich strategy and face-to-face social and competition of the best trading card games. A customized wand cost $100 in the Kickstarter, but MovableCode told Mashable that the ten different general production wands (each representing a class) would cost less, about as much as a console game. Players would be able to use iPhone or Android phones as part of the AR game, which provided an overlay of reality to find nearby players, scrolls with new spells, and other secrets. By turning the phone vertically players could manage spells and health. The wands themselves were interactive too, requiring somatic gestures to cast spells. Incantor failed to reach its $100,000 goal with just $10,986 in June 2012.
[h=3]Why Is This So Hard?[/h]If the many failed Kickstarters are any indication, the road to a successful AR game has several nearly insurmountable challenges that only Niantic (backed by Google) was positioned to overcome.
Given that Wizards of the Coast once owned the Pokemon card license, it’s entirely possible that parent company Hasbro – who has been actively investing in digital gaming -- might find that a D&D-themed AR game is worth the investment.
As AR games go, Pokemon Go isn’t that different from many other augmented reality games: players roam the physical world and engage in the game with a virtual overlay. Unlike some other AR games, there are no physical scanning requirements – Pokemon Go is entirely contained within its virtual overlay.
Pokemon Go’s immense popularity is due to the intersection of several factors:
- Reach: Developer Niantic has the massive amounts of map data thanks to its parent company, Google. Parallel Kingdom is a good example of a Pokemon Go-style game that lacks the data access of Google.
- Brand: Many of the kids who were part of earlier Pokemon craze launched by Wizards of the Coast’s card game are now nostalgic for Pokemon and have more buying power – in much the same way that the Old School Renaissance has bolstered interest in Dungeons & Dragons. For an example of a similar launch without the brand recognition, see Ingress, also by Niantic.
- Timing: Summer vacation and warm weather gives players free time to roam.
[h=3]Replacing Miniatures with AR Cards[/h]Perhaps the most obvious application of AR to role-playing games is to replace miniatures. The first generation of AR used codes printed on cards that an app would recognize via a smartphone camera. The path to a successful launch of a AR tabletop game is littered with failed attempts, as we shall see.
The OggBoard was an early attempt at an AR game board in October 2011 with an goal of raising $45,000:
It netted just $1,877.
Monsterology was a successful launch of a AR-based card game in 2012. The game was an isometric view of terrain with a series of playing pieces, signified by cards, in a virtual environment. Players collected monsters in blind booster packs of three. The players slapped the card onto the device and, thanks to a special ink, the app recognized the monster and inserted it into the game. Nukotoys’ web site has since been taken down.
Darkling Plain was touted as a cross between D&D and Settlers of Catan:
The Kickstarter netted just $15,755 of its $120,000 goal in July 2013.
If miniatures couldn’t be replaced with virtual doppelgangers, virtual doppelgangers could be replaced with miniatures. Enter Skylanders. There’s no virtual overlay per se – the figures have a chip that translates into a virtual doppelganger across any gaming platform – but Skylanders’ success encouraged Disney to create its own competitor with Disney Infinity…until it was shut down earlier this year.
That said, gamers have largely created their own AR overlays by using digital projection.
[h=3]Laser Tag Did it First[/h]The other opportunity for AR in role-playing is live-action integration. The first successful live-action AR implementationhas been around since the 80s:
The modern version of laser tag is Lyteshot, which expands the interactivity to a full range of multimedia:
It’s the effects that cannot easily be replicated by LARPs where AR seems like it may be most helpful, as described by RPG and game designer Alex Macris:
The possibilities of applying this sort of play to other props, and particularly LARPing, are endless:
The Incantor Kickstarter tried to address this very issue. Incantor was a real-world, mobile, fantasy-action game with all the depth and expandability of the big massive multi-player online role-playing games combined with the rich strategy and face-to-face social and competition of the best trading card games. A customized wand cost $100 in the Kickstarter, but MovableCode told Mashable that the ten different general production wands (each representing a class) would cost less, about as much as a console game. Players would be able to use iPhone or Android phones as part of the AR game, which provided an overlay of reality to find nearby players, scrolls with new spells, and other secrets. By turning the phone vertically players could manage spells and health. The wands themselves were interactive too, requiring somatic gestures to cast spells. Incantor failed to reach its $100,000 goal with just $10,986 in June 2012.
[h=3]Why Is This So Hard?[/h]If the many failed Kickstarters are any indication, the road to a successful AR game has several nearly insurmountable challenges that only Niantic (backed by Google) was positioned to overcome.
- Cost: The cost of development is prohibitive, with many Kickstarter goals at over $100,000. Without brand name recognition, getting over $100K of funding seems unlikely. As technology improves, the barrier to entry should become less expensive.
- Accessibility: Some of the Kickstarters cited the difficulty in explaining how the game works. Now that Pokemon Go has popularized AR games crowdfunded projects might be easier.
- Imaginative Play: RPGs generally need few props, so any game that would complement the experience would need to be complementary to the experience without being intrusive. Smartphones have traditionally been a competitor for eyeballs in RPG play (how many game masters have to tear a player's attention away from their phone?). All participants would need to agree to use their phones at the table for the AR to be effective.
Given that Wizards of the Coast once owned the Pokemon card license, it’s entirely possible that parent company Hasbro – who has been actively investing in digital gaming -- might find that a D&D-themed AR game is worth the investment.
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