Invizamals

Invizimals presents an interesting take on AR. It is a game for the play station portable where players capture, train, and battle virtual creatures, similar to pokemon, but invismals adds an intriguing AR twist. With the aid of a hardware attatchment to the PSP, players “see” the creatures as existing in the “real” world, as though the PSP where a window with which these normally invisible creatures are revealed.

What I think is most interesting about this example, is that it takes AR and makes it straightforward, understandable, and appealing enough to be a successful children’s game (with multiple sequels!). The project designers utilize AR in several ways to make for a very engaging experience. To discover new monsters, players must “find” them in their real environment, encouraging exploration of real space. In order to orient the invisimals in space, players must use fiduciary marker, but this is integrated into the game as a sort of “trapping” device. Players can use other extensions of the real world to interact with their invisimals, such as shaking their PSP to trigger an earthquake attack, or blowing into the microphone to trigger a whirlwind.

Some inspirations that I would like to draw from this project for my own are the ways Invisimals makes their AR integration so gratifying it is a fully fledged game.