AR mobile game HoloGrid inspired by Star Wars to launch in 2017
“Let the Wookie win.”
That was C-3PO’s advice to R2-D2 when the astromech competed against Chewbacca in a holographic board game known as “holochess”. Soon it will be possible to play a similar game in the “real” world thanks to augmented reality.
HoloGrid: Monster Battles is a new augmented reality title created by HappyGiant and Tippett Studio and funded via KickStarter. It raised $101,311 from 834 backers this past June.
Targeted for a Q1 2017 launch, HoloGrid is the brainchild of Phil Tippett and Michael Levine.
Tippett animated the holochess scenes in both A New Hope and The Force Awakens. He also worked on Empire Strikes Back as a stop motion animator.
Levine also has roots in Star Wars, having worked on game titles for the franchise during his time at LucasArts.
According to VentureBeat, Tippett sculptured the creatures seen in the game by hand. The sculptures then turned into digital assets through photogrammetry, which also saw use in Star Wars Battlefront. Photogrammetry scans tangible objects and converts them into 3D digital models.
The AR mobile game will work as such:
HappyGiant made physical cards and tablet stands so you could play 1-on-1 against another human player. You throw down a card in front of a tablet camera to scan the card. On the tablet screen, the monster on the card comes to life in full 3D in an augmented reality scene that blends the animation and the real world together. You throw down a board card to play on a particular board grid.
Then you choose your big monster, three minions, and two spells. All told, you’ll have more than 2,500 possible combinations based on all of the creature options. Then you tap on the screen to make the monsters move and attack. It’s a lot like Hearthstone as a card game, but the creatures move and roar as if they were coming to life. All told, Tippett created 18 unique monsters for the game.
VentureBeat noted that HoloGrid “feels like a spiritual successor” to the holochess game created by Tippett for Star Wars.
The game will be available for both iOS and Android and won’t have micro-transactions. According to UploadVR, the base version “will retail for approximately $30, will include 2 full decks of ~20 cards each, 2 tablet stands, and a rule guide to get you started.”
Augmented reality, or AR, uses sensors to combine computer-created images with real-world input. Perhaps the most famous example of an AR game is Pokemon GO, which launched with great success in July. In that game, digitally-generated Pokemon appeared on a mobile screen over a real-world background from the phone’s camera.
You can find out more about HoloGrid on the game’s official website.
Seems like a neat game! It’s especially cool to know that the original animator for holochess in Star Wars worked on the game. The $30 price-point might be a bit much for me to buy right off the bat, but I’ll definitely keep an eye on it. AR is an interesting field in gaming, so I’m curious to see how HoloGrid handles the technology.
