Blippar looks to bring augmented reality games to Google Glass

Game developers have experimented with augmented reality titles on a variety of camera-enabled platforms, including handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita as well as mobile phones running Android and iOS. A company called Blippar is working on the next step toward the kind of augmented reality experiences we've seen in the movies: gaming with a camera on your face — namely, Google Glass.

Blippar, which was founded in 2011, is an augmented reality firm that has worked with clients such as Kraft, Coca-Cola and Justin Bieber to produce marketing tied to the physical world. Ambarish Mitra, Blippar's founder and CEO, told Polygon in a recent interview that the company boasts the "fastest image recognition platform" in the world, capable of picking up "billions of images" in under 300 milliseconds with a mobile app that weighs in at less than 6 MB.

The philosophy behind Blippar, said Mitra, is that while "we are in the middle of a digital revolution and everything's going digital," the physical world remains relevant and "will always be relevant." He added that "bridging the physical with digital will drive better relevance, because you have an element of context.

"we will create a browser of the physical world"

"So we built Blippar with the whole ambition that we will create a browser of the physical world, and anything you look at, you get either utility information out of it or you get entertainment out of it," Mitra continued.

Blippar's existing technology is available in apps on Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The company recently began working with Google Glass: In February, Blippar was able to get its image recognition engine up and running on the platform, and now the company has been able to make it interactive.

Mitra called Glass a "very natural extension of [Blippar's] being," and a "validation of AR." But according to Mitra, Google has yet to fulfill the promise of Glass that it presented when it unveiled the first prototype at Google I/O 2012. The Glass games that Google initially showed off weren't really AR experiences in that they "had nothing to do with the physical environment." Blippar is taking advantage of a variety of Glass' hardware capabilities.

We tried an early tech demo that gave us an idea of how far Blippar's multifaceted technology is. Mitra taped a poster-size version of the image above to the wall, and then we put on Google Glass. Within a few moments, the device's camera recognized the image, and rocks began flying at our face. Our task was to avoid the rocks by moving our head. The rocks were coming at us in three dimensions, so we had to time our dodges well; it was as if we were evading bullets in Superhot.

The game was running on an Android phone and was being displayed on Glass via Bluetooth, so there was a lag between our movements and the in-game effects; Mitra attributed that to the older Android phone being used and the wireless connection. The frame rate was crawling, too, but we were able to get an idea of what's possible with Blippar's technology. And according to Mitra, the rock game is intended merely as a proof of concept for developers.

"you can have multiplayer gaming just by looking at things"

"This is proving that you can actually even start thinking about building games on Glass which are three-dimensional in nature," said Mitra. Blippar plans to release a software development kit for augmented reality Glass games in July.

According to Mitra, Blippar's technology is platform- and hardware-agnostic; even if Glass doesn't succeed as a commercial product, Mitra believes that augmented reality will continue forward. And the company has high hopes for interactive augmented reality experiences, such as the technology's power to enhance physical toys. Mitra spoke of playing with Lego minifigures, which remain popular today even though they're static pieces of plastic.

"That very character can come to life and start shooting lasers at other characters," said Mitra of Lego.
"And you can have multiplayer gaming just by looking at things," he continued. "And this is where we believe a lot of gaming companies will start thinking beyond the boundaries of a disc or just a shell of a computer."

Source: Polygon

Civilization Revolution 2 is designed as a bite-size Civ experience

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2 is designed to give players bite-sized Civ rounds that satisfy those quick-fix strategy simulation needs while still delivering a meaty, meaningful experience.

Following in the footsteps of Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution – which launched in 2008 for Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and for iOS the following year — Civilization Revolution 2 tasks players with colonizing and civilizing their own nation, conquering other nations as they advance from primitive times through the industrial era and beyond. Like its predecessor, the game involves historical figures in players' plights, including Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and Napoleon. This time around, however, there are some new faces for players to conquer or befriend, like John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill.
 

Developer 2K China — original Civ developer Firaxis games is providing "constant support and input" for the title — is also promising to release additional map sections and civilization leaders through the App Store. Players will have the option to purchase these characters and areas and add them to their game, although doing so is purely cosmetic.

But Revolution 2 has been made specifically for iOS, and is designed as a quick, portable fix for series veterans, as well as an easy entry point for newcomers. An entire game, from first colonization all the way up to cultural victory, can be played in just around an hour.

Perhaps the biggest feature making Revolution 2 an easy first title for Civ newbies is its simplified user interface. With a finger tap, players can pull up their cities, moving settlers and resources. Within city submenus, players can select what to build and spend money on from a line of tiles on the right side of the scene. Swiping will scroll down the list, where players can select from different types of solders and war machines like catapults, buildings like grain silos and libraries. Players can also build Natural Wonders — structures like the Library of Alexandria and the Taj Mahal — which give players cultural points towards winning the game.

Not only are menus streamlined to show players all the details they need upfront to make informed decisions, but notifications that pop up during turns do this as well. In my hands-on time with the game, during one of my skirmishes fighting against a minor barbarian village, I succeeded only to have a group of settlers pop up. These settlers I could then move anywhere with fertile lands and have them build a new city. Small icons around the settlers and on the side of the screen quickly indicated to me, through tiny pictures, that I could either move these settlers along or have them stay where they were and build a new city. I chose the latter, setting up a brand new region for my people to produce military works.




The rest of the game will be familiar to Civ players — the cycle of creating, conquering and controlling the world continues. To better let players observe what happens, Revolution 2's world is displayed in 3D and at a slight angle, rather than straight top-down. This lets players watch horsemen take down archers on foot, or trace the path of individual units across various parts of the map. The presentation is very bright, with loads of color and sound to accompany players' actions.

While the original Civilization Revolution hit consoles first, Revolution 2 associate producer Adam Plotkin said that there are no plans to launch the title on consoles or PC at this time. According the Plotkin, the reasoning behind the mobile-only launch lies with wanting to bring a tailored Civ experience to the mobile space.

"The success of Civilization Revolution on iOS was undeniable, and we wanted to cater to that audience by providing them with an updated experience that truly takes advantage of the mobile platform's capabilities," Plotkin said. "Right now, we are only focused on making Civilization Revolution 2 a successful mobile game."

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2 will launch on July 2 for $14.99 and is compatible with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The title will be released later for Android devices.

Source: Polygon

One of the best iOS games ever made is finally out for Android.

One of the best iOS games ever made is finally out for Android. The 1.1 update of Eliss Infinity—the evolution of beautiful/tough/artsy rapid-fire movement puzzle Eliss—debuts on the Google Play storefront today. The 1.1 is up on the Apple App Store, too. A rundown of the changes can be found here and Gamasutra's got an insightful dev-on-dev interview where Canabalt maker Adam Saltsman talks to Eliss creator Steph Thirion.

Source: Kotaku

Reading Rainbow Kickstarter expanded with limited-edition blue Ouya

 

The Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign is in its last days, and four other Kickstarter darlings are pitching in for the final push, including Ouya, which has created a limited-edition blue console as a new reward tier.

Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton launched the Kickstarter late last month, looking to raise $1 million to bring the beloved education program to the web and schools everywhere; backers met the goal within 11 hours. As of this writing, the campaign has brought in more than $4.28 million from nearly 88,000 backers, good for fifth place on the list of the top-grossing Kickstarters of all time.

Burton and his team announced shortly after the start of the funding drive that if it reaches the $5 million mark, they will be able to release the new Reading Rainbow as an app on Android, set-top boxes and gaming consoles. Ouya announced today that the $5 million stretch goal now includes an Ouya version of Reading Rainbow. In addition, the company will contribute a free Ouya to each of the Adopt a School reward packages, which are at the $5,000 level of the Kickstarter campaign.

And in an effort to help the Kickstarter get to the $5 million mark, the micro-console manufacturer is producing 500 units of an Ouya and accompanying controller in "Butterfly-in-the-Sky Blue," all of which will be autographed by Burton himself. The unique package is now available as a $250 reward tier for the Kickstarter.

The three other highest-grossing campaigns in Kickstarter history — the Pebble Smartwatch (No. 1), the Pono Music audio player (No. 3) and the film Veronica Mars (No. 4) — are also contributing their own Reading Rainbow Kickstarter-exclusive limited-edition rewards. All the details are available in today's Kickstarter update. And yesterday, Burton announced that Family Guy co-creator and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey executive producer Seth MacFarlane will match every dollar contributed above the $4 million mark, up to a maximum of $1 million.

Less than five days are left in the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign: It will end at 3 p.m. ET on July 2.

Source: Polygon