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It’s a shame; I think their Lightship platform sounds pretty interesting, if it can accelerate AR game implementation. https://lightship.dev/ https://lightship

It’s a shame; I think their Lightship platform sounds pretty interesting, if it can accelerate AR game implementation. https://lightship.dev/ https://lightship.dev/ Having said that, none of their recent game ideas sound promising to me, except perhaps Harry Potter. I think to do as well as Pokémon you need to come up with a concept that is interesting (or flavorful) enough for folks to weave into their daily routine. Even Harry Potter might be a bad fit as IMO it has a really weak magic system (mechanically speaking). I suspect more successful would be a world with an interesting hard magic system with complex mechanics, plus compelling flavor like Harry Potter is so good at. Personally I think Cultist Simulator would be a good fit, since it has compelling recipe-progression and has great flavor that could be woven into the real world. Maybe Stranger Things, with the AR being a window into the Upside Down? I wonder if there is a way to weave Eve Online into an AR experience where people could contribute resources to corporations & participate in territorial struggles. Interested to hear other folks’ ideas for compelling AR experiences.

meheleventyone 4y ago
To me it’s mostly the mismatch between the world the player can interact with via the phone and the world they’re actually embodied in. Particularly for location-based or social games. It’s like going to a murder mystery weekend but everyone playing the actual game on their phone in a hotel room. These games need to lift the play off the screen. More LARP less AR. At least until AR is actually in glasses, in a shared consistent virtual space and not totally naff. The screen is then there to act as our screens do now, a way to access and record information but about the game specifically.
- theptip 4y ago
  Yes, that is a good point. Perhaps more interaction could be fostered by giving each player only part of the solution, so you MUST collaborate. Murder mystery is a good one because you could have different clues visible to different players. (Perhaps your class enables you to decode certain clue types.) One mechanic I thought of for AR Cultist Simulator is to have a “be afraid to share” mechanic where you need to share with somebody in order to unlock recipes/solve challenges, but if you share widely you can be exploited. This could prevent folks from putting up FAQs revealing the solution to a given puzzle, and could provide a great tension and source of drama like Eve Online. Anyway I think your idea for AR parlor games is a good one, that could be a very fruitful avenue. You could have a DM/host set up the clues within a house and let the rest play the game, or even have everyone scan the house and somehow randomly do the setup.

meheleventyone 4y ago

To me it’s mostly the mismatch between the world the player can interact with via the phone and the world they’re actually embodied in. Particularly for location-based or social games. It’s like going to a murder mystery weekend but everyone playing the actual game on their phone in a hotel room. These games need to lift the play off the screen. More LARP less AR. At least until AR is actually in glasses, in a shared consistent virtual space and not totally naff. The screen is then there to act as our screens do now, a way to access and record information but about the game specifically.

theptip 4y ago
Yes, that is a good point. Perhaps more interaction could be fostered by giving each player only part of the solution, so you MUST collaborate. Murder mystery is a good one because you could have different clues visible to different players. (Perhaps your class enables you to decode certain clue types.) One mechanic I thought of for AR Cultist Simulator is to have a “be afraid to share” mechanic where you need to share with somebody in order to unlock recipes/solve challenges, but if you share widely you can be exploited. This could prevent folks from putting up FAQs revealing the solution to a given puzzle, and could provide a great tension and source of drama like Eve Online. Anyway I think your idea for AR parlor games is a good one, that could be a very fruitful avenue. You could have a DM/host set up the clues within a house and let the rest play the game, or even have everyone scan the house and somehow randomly do the setup.