The
phrase "Augmented Reality" became very popular when Pokemon Go was
released just a few months ago, but I've liked the word "Augmented",
long before that game made it famous, because of another use apart from
computer gaming. Being an average traditional male specimen and also
very proud of it, I like women as well as cars quite a bit, but I enjoy
both of them even more when they are shown topless. That explains why I
have always liked the use of "augmented" associated with the word
"breasts" in cosmetic surgery terminology. Don't blame me for being
honest here! Have you not noticed that almost all women characters in
computer games have undergone some excessive breast enlargement
procedures? Lara Croft in Tomb Rider is the perfect, but definitely not
the only example here. There is a good reason for that, but I will
discuss it in another post later on.
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| Lara Croft in Tomb Rider is a great example of the average gamer preferences. |
Actually, augmenting the world didn't start with the
first breast implants back in 1962 either. It predates this miracle of
the modern medicine by thousands of years. It has been documented that
about two millenniums ago, every fall season, the ancient Celts
celebrated the Samhian Festival. They believed that the boundary between
the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and the ghosts of
all recently deceased returned to earth. To ward off those roaming
spirits, the Celts would make frightful lanterns for their homes and put
on dead-like masks and disguises. It is widely believed that these are
the very origins of our modern Halloween parties when we decorate our
surroundings to look like a graveyard or some other scary scene of evil
descent. This is exactly what Augmented Reality is all about: converting
the real world into something else by using decorations or electronic
devices.
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| Halloween is the perfect example of Augmented Reality |
Come to think about it, Pokemon Go is not at all what
it pretends to be. It fits the description of a location based game
much better than
Augmented Reality (for more info on this subject, see this
article by Sunny Dhillon),
but even if it was AR, it would still not be the first
game of this kind. My first Augmented Reality gaming experience happened
back in 2005 while I was visiting "the waterpark capital of the world":
Wisconsin Dells. I remember walking through the main entrance of
Wizard Quest
and instantly leaving the 21 century. All of a sudden, I found myself
in the middle of a fantasy world that was beyond my belief and I fell in
love with it from first sight. No, I didn't misspell the name. The
Wizard Quest facility in Wisconsin Dells is one of a kind experience and
it has nothing to do with the
MagiQuest franchise.
Although, they both represent the genre of Augmented Reality pretty
well and they have very similar game mechanics, MagiQuest uses
two-dimensional printed walls to change the environment while Wizard
Quest is a much more believable non-computerized three-dimensional
experience which makes you feel that you just found yourself right in
the middle of the planet Pandora from the movie Avatar.
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| A real photo taken at the Wizard Quest facility in Wisconsin Dells, USA |
But enough about history and theory of Augmented
Reality. Lets talk games now! Yes, you can create an adventure for your
family and friends fairly easy without having any programming skills.
However, you would have to be creative or be willing to spend some money
for decorations. The process will consist of three parts: creating the
environment (decorating the play area), designing the game (coming up
with adventures and tasks for the players) and, of course, playtime.
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| Medieval Castle Scene Setter |
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1. Create a parallel world (decorate the play area):
You can set the game up in your backyard or at your home. To make it
more interesting, challenging and time consuming, I recommend using as
much room as you have. First, you would have to decide the setting and
the theme of your game. Second, you would have to create (buy cardboard
and start drawing) or purchase (find and buy online) enough decorations
to be able to augment your game area. You could order scene setters,
backdrops, playtents and cardboard cutouts that fit your theme from a
party store or on the Internet. Here is just an example of how you can
set up one of your rooms as a castle using scene setters:
Medieval Scene Setter.
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| Knight Miniatures Scene |
Chances are that you may not be willing to spend that
much money, so as an alternative, you could use your kids miniatures to
create the game scenes on shelves or tables in different rooms. For an
example, one of your rooms could be the fairytale castle, while another
one could represent the enchanted forest and a third one can be set up
as the evil forces stronghold and so on. Just put your imagination to
work! As another alternative to scene setters and miniatures, you could
use your computer to print some paper castles, knights, evil creatures,
wizards, dragons and everything else you can possibly think of, then cut
them out and use glue or tape to create the desired scenes for your
game. Whatever you do, make sure that you have enough pieces to design a
good storyline and challenges for your game.
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| The Evil Forces Stronghold |
2. Design the game and the game tasks
2.1.
Storyline: Your scenario could be as simple as "the dark forces have
invaded the earth and you must collect specific artifacts and put an
army of creatures together to defeat the evil hordes and free your land
of darkness", but the more complex and engaging of a story you have, the
more interesting game your friends and family would experience.
2.2.
Game Mechanics: Create multiple tasks that have to be completed to win
the game. Naturally, to keep the players interested for a long time, you
should make them as diverse as possible. Example: Have the kids collect
(discover) a fishtail, wing of bat and a mistflower, so they can boil a
potion of strength to be able to remove the rock blocking the entrance
to the cavern dungeon.
2.2.1. Implement Treasure Hunt Mechanics:
find the following items (they would be spread out in multiple scenes
and rooms): a magic sword, cloak of invisibility and so on.
2.2.2.
Include Collecting Resources: find 100 gold, 5 wood and 10 knights
(they should also be spread throughout all rooms and scenes)
2.2.3.
Integrate Economics: your players should be able to spend the gold on
purchasing magic spells, equipment, healing potions, army units or other
things.
2.2.4. If you have multiple players, you could include
some boardgame techniques and have them race against each other in
completing the tasks.
2.2.5. To make the game even more interesting, design it as a gamebook adventure:
2.2.5.1.
collecting information (example: tell the players what clues and items
the wicked witch gives them when they find her or when they help her by
completing a certain task for her)
2.2.5.2. making difficult
meaningful decisions (example: would they spend resources on helping the
old farmer defend his home, would they side with the honest king or
with his sneaky brother)
2.2.5.3. logic puzzles and riddles (players would gain information or items when solving them)
2.2.5.4. dice battles (the outcome would depend on the items collected and skills gained during the adventure).
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| You can save a lot of money by getting creative :-) |
3. Playtime (Test of Performance): the
gameplay process in any game (computer or otherwise) is constructed of
three very basic core mechanics: input - test of performance - feedback.
3.1.
Gamer input:
It is obvious that you can't have your players wave magic wands at the
items like in the MagiQuest games, so I would suggest two other ways for
you to receive their input:
3.1.1. Have your players find
codewords printed on the objects they are looking for (example: name the
goldfish 'Jewels', print the name on it and you would know that the
player discovered the goldfish if they know its name)
3.1.2.
Having cellphone cameras at almost anybody's disposal nowdays, you can
have the players take a photo of the object and show it to you to prove
that they have located it.
3.1.3. Combine input methods and use codewords for some items and taking photos for other encounters.
3.2.
Test of performance:
It would be the dungeon master's job (yes, that is you) to figure out
if the player has collected the necessary items or hired enough units to
complete the quest you assigned them to (example: if they give you the
codewords or show you the photos of the fishtail, wing of bat and
mistflower, you can tell them that they can find the wicked witch and
she will cook the potion of strength for them)
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| Cardboard Cavern Structure |
3.3.
Storyteller Feedback: Give them feedback
through narrative by explaining what else they need to do in order to
succeed (negative feedback) or get them excited that they've done well
and they are advancing through the storyline (positive feedback example:
Once the player has found the wicked witch and collected all the
ingredients, you can tell them that they have enough strength to remove
the huge rock blocking the entrance to the cavern dungeon and let them
explore that area as well)
Game Design Hint: It is
obvious that the core mechanic of this kind of game is the Treasure
Hunt, so have as many items scattered throughout the play area as
possible and don't make it clear right in the beginning when and how
some things would be needed. That way, you will not only provoke the
explorer instinct in your players, but you will also have implemented a
memory game mechanic, because they'll have to remember where they saw a
specific item earlier in the adventure and go back to that location to
obtain it when needed. It is a good idea to have most of the play areas
(different rooms) "sealed off" in the beginning of the game and have
your players complete certain quests in order to "open them" for
exploration. That represents the "find a key to unlock this door"
mechanic which has proven to be very successful and addicting in all
kinds of adventure games.
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| use Baby Gate to close off certain areas of the adventure until the players gain access to them |
The bottom line is that you must decorate well,
create a compelling story and set interesting and challenging tasks for
your players. To successfully do all of that, you don't need any
programming skills, although they could be useful if you already have
them, but rather learn how to design a good game by reading some
Gamebook Theory here:
LloydOfGamebooks.com,
AshtonSaylor.com or my own blog at
Visual Gamebook Adventures.
Peter Agapov
Game Designer at
AugmentedRealityAdventure.com
President and Chief Executive Officer of
American Limo Naperville
Former Road Captain of
Marine One at
Operation "Welcome You Home"
