Tales of the Rampant Coyote

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The Most Awful Idea Ever for an Augmented Reality Game

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 18, 2016

Pokémon Go has become the gaming fad of the season. I haven’t played due to not having enough memory on my phone. But I have a lot of friends playing. As both a gamer and game designer, I respect the idea.

In my opinion, one of the biggest things it has done has been to prove the viability of Augmented Reality (AR) gaming. Although I assume most players aren’t familiar with the term. All they know is that you go through the real world to play Pokémon. It’s the first mega-hit in that field. There is new technology on the horizon that will make Augmented Reality even cooler… like (potentially) the Microsoft HoloLens.

Mapping fantasy onto reality – giving daydreams a physical form – is a very cool idea that’s been around for a long time, but the technology hasn’t been where we could do much with it, until now. The Void is coming at it from the VR direction… mapping the real-world to fit a fantasy. But the AR side… putting fantasy into the real world… has more consumer-level potential.

But there are some dangers when we start blurring the line between fantasy and reality. We’ve already seen some issues with Pokémon Go appearing in the news. But even barring the dangers of malware and spying, of an AR game leading you into a dangerous real-world situation, there’s one idea for a game which is just…. terrifyingly bad. And yet tempting at the same time.

Maybe it’s just because I have a vivid imagination, but turning your own home into a survival-horror AR game just sounds… bad. Really bad. Because what has been seen cannot be unseen, and I can’t imagine turning my safe place, my refuge from the world, into an AR horror.

So, naturally, it’s being done. Probably by several developers. I just know of this one, Night Terrors.

Okay, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit tempting. Just a little. Because I AM STUPID. In this particular game, you play by turning off all the lights and letting your smartphone illuminate the room with its LED light. You are supposed to play with headphones on. You see everything through the camera’s screen and get a glimpse of how haunted and horrifying your home is.

Yeah. Brilliant idea. Good luck sleeping without the lights on, like, EVER AGAIN. But… there’s no requirement that you play it in your own home. Any indoor location you might be… in the dark… will do.

The game isn’t out yet. It’s in beta right now. Somehow, Pokémon Go seems like a better choice.


Filed Under: Indie Horror Games - Comments: 2 Comments to Read



  • JTippetts said,

    Nope. Not even gonna watch that video. Why, yes. Yes, I am a big chicken. How did you know?

  • lakerz said,

    This sounds like the natural way forward for gameing. 😀

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