We had a great opportunity to attend one of the world’s greatest gaming festival in Seattle, WA. Hashbyte Studio is one of the eminent game development companies in India. We are a team of young avid game lovers who aspire to create something innovative in the gaming world. Though we are a startup, we got […]
We had a great opportunity to attend one of the world’s greatest gaming festival in Seattle, WA. Hashbyte Studio is one of the eminent game development companies in India. We are a team of young avid game lovers who aspire to create something innovative in the gaming world. Though we are a startup, we got a chance to work with North Star Games for two of their projects.
Dream Project
North Star Games is a big shot in the gaming industry. They are a famous board game publishing company and has been publishing games since 2003. One of their board games, Evolution is an award-winning board game and the game is about adapting to environmental changes. Likewise, it is also available in a digital game. Now they have decided to extend it to the Nintendo switch, and guess what? we are responsible for it. This is a big opportunity for our studio to display our skills to the world.
Following the Evolution series, North Star Games has created another board game called Oceans that revolves around vibrant marine life. We are working on the digital version of Oceans. So we are excited to work alongside North Star Games on two of their projects. And yes, I attended PAX West 2019 to display the Nintendo Switch version of the Evolution game.
PAX Event
PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) is a game festival, held in different parts of the US and in Melbourne, Australia. It is an exclusive event conducted for the arcade, tabletop, and console games. This event is conducted every year to celebrate and unite the game lovers all over the world. You can come across many people in this event.
Generally, the event starts with a key speech by an industrial insider, panels on game topics, concerts inspired by game-culture, tabletop gaming tournaments, exhibitor booths from both major and independent game developers and publishers, video game free-play areas, and LAN party multiplayer. Since the event took place in different cities, the event which took place in Seattle is called PAX West. The event takes place for 4 days.
PAX West 2019
This year the PAX event took place from Aug 30th to Sept 2nd. Our CTO Bakshish Singh had the opportunity to attend this grand event. This was a proud moment for him and our studio. After checking-in the hotel, he met our clients. Since he has already been in touch with them via video/skype calls it was easy for him to get along with them.
The event took place at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The exhibitor’s booth was allotted to the game publishers and developers to showcase the exhibits.
Once when the exhibitors were ready with their exhibits, the media and press were first allowed to enter the venue and take a look at the games. Finally, the public entered the venue.
Bakshish was overwhelmed by the crowd. Because he witnessed people from all over the world came to attend this event. The reason behind the event is gamers get to see their favorite game’s new version, character introduction, exclusive goodies that are not available outside. Some of the game lovers wore cosplay costumes for the event of their favorite game characters. To get to know the kind of love people had for the games encouraged us to push our boundaries.
In the stall, they had displayed the game along with goodies like pins (long neck- famous character in Evolution), Steam keys, and a combo. Since the board and digital version of the game is famous among the players, people were excited about the Nintendo Switch version.
An enthusiastic 9-year old player came with her father to play the Nintendo version. She was excited to play the game. Upon seeing her involvement, the father enquired about the game and its launch. Similarly, the team had many audiences visit the booth and ask about the game. This indicated how much people are anticipating the project we have been working on. It was blissful.
On the third day, the press came to visit the booth and they presented the game with the switch. The press had an exclusive interview with Scott Rencher, the President of North Star Digital Studios regarding the switch version of the game, the reason to use the switch, its gameplay and others. Even they were excited to see the game.
Fan Moment
Bakshish visited other booths and had a chance to play other games. Borderlands 3 was one of the main attractions in the PAX event. Gearbox Software showed a live stream of the gameplay and the new features of the game before its release. They also conducted game challenges and the winners received t.shirts.
People were waiting in long queues to take pictures with the big game character figures/statues. Even Bakshish got a chance to take pictures with the characters. He tried his hands on a few of the games and had a great experience.
The best part about this event is we get to meet people from your own field and knowledge sharing takes place (both technical and non-technical). He met the Battlefield designers of Final Fantasy game. It was wondrous to know there is a team that focuses on the rules of the battlefield in the game.
Bakshish got a chance to meet a Graphic artist from Saga. And got to know the detailed work done by them and the artflow they follow while approaching a character.
Time to leave
After the event, he went to dinner with Scott and his team. The food was yummy and they spent more time talking about the event and the project. They also guided him to explore a few other places.
“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding
The PAX event is a reunion for like-minded people who solely love playing and developing games. Certainly, Bakshish had a wonderful experience. He showcased the Nintendo switch version of Evolution, took pictures with game characters, or meeting wonderful people. It was truly a learning experience for him.
Making engaging mobile games is the biggest responsibility of mobile game developers. There are several sophisticated development tools available in the market. These amazing development tools are responsible for turning a simple mobile game idea into an addictive game. Mobile phones have become an inevitable part of our lives. We simply do not use it […]
Making engaging mobile games is the biggest responsibility of mobile game developers. There are several sophisticated development tools available in the market. These amazing development tools are responsible for turning a simple mobile game idea into an addictive game.
Mobile phones have become an inevitable part of our lives. We simply do not use it for communication, but also as a source of entertainment. And when we say entertainment, it is mostly to play games. People have an untiring interest in mobile games. It is one of the biggest reasons for mobile game development to become a top-notch industry in today’s tech-savvy world.
The mobile gaming industry is the most profitable industry and it generates more than 80% of revenue. Apart from a good storyline and gameplay, a successful game should also be graphically enriched. For this, you need proper game development tools.
Must try Mobile Game Development Tools
Let’s take a look at the most promising and popular mobile game developing tools.
Unity
Unity Technologies launched a brilliant cross-platform and create exciting mobile games by deploying on other platforms. This engine supports UnityScript, its own language, and C#. This has both the free edition and professional edition.
Unity has an in-built editor which allows the users to organize the animations and edit images from the Animator window. With the Unity Editor, you can also design the particle system. For easy access to its features, the UI has different components. And it has a customized physics engine with a built-in camera to simplify the navigations.
Developers who desire to design a mobile game that is accessible on multiple platforms can opt for this tool. It offers numerous assets for the game from its asset store.
Corona SDK
Using Corona SDK, it is possible to develop free mobile games. It uses a lightweight scripting language Lua. OpenGL is the rendering engine used by Corona. This software development tool is available on Apple’s operating system (OS X) and Windows.
Corona SDK has a built-in transition library and scene management. It allows the developers to modify and adjust the graphical qualities of the game. It is easy to create graphical surroundings, design multiple levels, and understand the interactions between each element.
Corona Lab offers the developers with Text plug-ins and Corona Editor making game development a cakewalk for skilled game developers. The developer can choose the enterprise model that provides native APIs and libraries to add more features in the game.
Lumberyard
Amazon’s AAA game development tool- Lumberyard is based on CryEngine architecture. This is one of the best cross-platform game engines that provide lots of functionalities and tools to develop best-quality games.
By integrating Twitch, Lumberyard offers a live video game streaming facilities with a large audience every month. And this capability makes it the most convenient development tool for marketing video and mobile games. One of the best use of using this tool is that the developers need not share their revenues with Amazon. They can host their multiplayer games on the cloud as it integrates with Amazon web services.
Developers can make use of gaming features and engage with the gaming community using Twitch. They also provide TwitchJoinIn, Twitch ChatPlay, and Twitch Metastream.
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine by Epic Games is one of the best game development kits. It has a lot of options for Console, PC, and mobile game development. This kit enables the developers to render console-quality content on mobile phones.
Unreal delivers cutting-edge gaming experience with features like physical-based rendering, dynamic shadows, and post-processing.
As the games are shifting towards AR and VR domains, the Unreal toolkit provides its expertise. Challenging apps like filmmaking, photo-real visualization, and AAA games can use this game engine. It also offers a solid foundation to create content on the mobile VR platform.
This game engine has amazing graphical capabilities like advanced dynamic lighting and particle system that can simultaneously handle millions of particles in a single scene. This is truly a delight for the 3D game developers.
Game Maker Studio
Game Maker Studio is an easy to use framework launched by YoYo, especially for 2D game development. The tool has robust functionalities that are suitable for beginners who are new to the industry.
Through their Drag and Drop development environment, they are trying to make game development reachable to everyone. It has few features like real-time analysis to know about in-game actions, 2D Spine animations with full support, Git and Stream integrations.
The developers have access to different game developing software through their YoYo account. Even the platform allows the developers to personalize by organizing a workspace or development environment.
Cocos2D
This is a free and open-source framework. Cocos2D supports OS X and iOS. It works with Objective-C and Swift. When the coding is in Objective C, through the SpriteBuilder Android plug-in it supports Android.
Using the SpriteBuilder the developers can create projects and provide graphic design environment- where they can build and prototype games. It uses the OpenGL rendering engine.
Use CCAction class for actions like rotate, scale, and move, for tilemap use CCTiledMap, support particle systems using CCParticleSystem. For animations use CCAnimation class, and to perform the scene management use CCTransition and CCDirector.
Developers interested in working on Swift and Objective-C can use this framework and execute an effective mobile game development process.
Marmalade
Marmalade is a high performance and fast cross-platform engine used for creating 2D and 3D games. This is a free suite that makes game development easy and simple porting process. This is an award-winning development tool that is famous among the developers. Because of the ability to build native games for desktop and mobile phones. You can code the SDK even in C++.
The Quick version of the tool supports application development using the scripting language Lua. Marmalade Web supports hybrid apps like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS are supported by Marmalade Web.
Another version of the development tool called Marmalade Juice supports the porting of iOS games to the Android platform.
Conclusion
These are some of the best mobile game development tools, frameworks, and engines proposed by the game developers. This will give you the cognizance of choosing the best possible solution while developing your dream game.
Augmented reality is the new way of playing games. The game developers are offering additional features and fidelity game graphics for the players. With the AR, one can interact and engage with realistic characters and locations, use various different weapons and arms, and compete on augmented battle zones. AR technology has made Mobile games have […]
Augmented reality is the new way of playing games. The game developers are offering additional features and fidelity game graphics for the players. With the AR, one can interact and engage with realistic characters and locations, use various different weapons and arms, and compete on augmented battle zones.
AR technology has made Mobile games have become more engrossing and interactive. The players can easily play the AR-based games on their Android and iOS phones without the need for special devices or exorbitant software for rendition.
Top 25 Augmented Reality Mobile Games for iOS and Android
Here are some of the most popular and leading Augmented reality-based mobile games for Android and iOS.
Geolocation(Adventure) AR games
ARrrrrgh
dARk: Subject One
Ingress
Pokemon GO
Sharks in the Park
Temple Treasure Hunt
WallaMe
AR shooting games
AR Invaders
Army of Robots
Clandestine: Anomaly
Nightenfell: Shared AR
Zombie GO
Zombie Gunship Revenant AR
Quest and Sports AR games
AR Sports Basketball
Geocaching
Invizimals: The Resistance
Zombies, Run!
Table and Board AR games
AR Smash Tanks
Beer Pong AR
Jenga AR
PulzAR
Slingshot Island
AR-based Horror games
Night Terrors
Peronio Pop-Up Book
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
Geolocation(Adventure) AR games
In the world of AR games, the most exciting genre is the Adventure games- as they use the real-life locations and maps as the gameplay interface, and augmenting it with amazing plots, unique quests, and astounding creatures. With the help of GPS enabled mobile phones, gamers can move around the neighborhood and complete all the quests. With the AR technology, it is possible two merge fantasy and reality together.
1.ARrrrrgh
Your surrounding becomes your environment. The game gives a new pirate twist on the ‘hide and seek game with a treasure hunt, a parrot and rum. It’s a family adventure game and the players can turn the surroundings into the quest territory and seek the gold treasure boxes.
The game is made using the ARCore and Unity, the players can enjoy the gain without any in-app ads in the early stages of the game. However, the game does not support all devices.
2. dARk: Subject One
Experience the dark plot with augmented reality technology at your place. Many players appreciate the game’s AR features and video home system (VHS) style visuals and compare it with the aura of The Stranger Things. The players have a risky mission to find a missing person, uncover the secrets and clues, and explore the unknown.
3. Ingress
There are many mind-blowing games from the studio of Niantic, Ingress is the popular mobile game among the players. The dark energy was discovered by Scientists, which can influence the way people think. There are two factions involved, the Resistance and the Enlightened.
The Resistance wants to protect humanity, and the Enlightened aim to use the energy to control mankind. The continued response for this game is its capturing plot. The players have to choose sides, discover the energy located in the city and capture it.
According to the game, the entire world is the game plot. Players can wander through the cities and streets and discover a new world around them- constantly changing plot filled with hidden codes and signs, and loads of cryptic clues.
4. Pokemon GO
Pokemon GO is a legendary game that brought AR games to the world. The game by Niantic gained incredible earnings and upholds many Guinness Records. It is hard to overstate the role of AR-based games in terms of publicizing the AR technology to the crowd.
This is a mobile game under the Adventure genre. The game’s battlefield is placed on real-life surroundings with superimposed animated virtual objects onto the player’s environment. The game was launched in 2016 and the excitement continues.
5. Sharks in the Park
This game gives an amazing experience for adults and children. The AR technology turns the city park or the garden space into a startling world of splendid landscapes with extraordinary creatures. The phone uses GPS, so the players can experience the game to its fullest. The sensors capture the player’s move. Therefore, the players run in the game, when they actually run in the real world.
6.Temple Treasure Hunt
Interesting AR game for mystery lovers. The game uses real map location and has 2 different modes- the indoor mode and outdoor mode. The player has to trail through the surroundings and seek the treasure, the players can be the treasure hunter or the treasure protector.
The Indian mythological characters in the game come up as the guardians of the treasure. The player has to discover the treasure if they are the treasure hunters, and they have to create a trail as a protector.
7. WallaMe
WallaMe game combines the geolocation augmented reality technology with social and fun activities. You can play this game with your friends and colleagues, and you can leave hidden texts in a playful way.
The players have to take a picture of the real world place (wall street, etc) and add hand-drawn sketches, images or text. Send the hidden message to your friends or others, where they have to decrypt the message.
AR shooting games
Shooter games are the most popular gaming genre with compulsive gameplay. Now with the help of the augmented reality technology players can fight the enemies in real-time. The use of AR takes the game to the next level giving a fantastic feeling of emotions.
8. AR Invaders
Want to experience the basic level shooting game with AR technology? AR Invaders is the game you’re looking for. The game is all about aliens vs humans war. In the AR mode, the player’s mobile phone projects the UFOs on their surroundings. The purpose of the game is to destroy the alien base before they demolish the city.
This game has three-story modes called the Invasion, Hold’em Up, and Multiplayer and the players can play in 2 action modes. Be it the sitting shooting gameplay in 180 degrees, or 360 degrees in standing position, all you have to do is be aware of the surroundings and be quick.
9. Army of Robots
This game is a first-person shooting game with exciting fights in the real world surroundings. The game has an interactive augmented reality mobile game with different levels.
The gamers can calibrate the game environment by pointing the mobile phone towards the physical elements. Also, if there are no objects- the battleship appears and the players can continue playing the game.
10. Clandestine: Anomaly
This a space-based game, where the players have to defend the aliens from capturing our planet. Use your mobile phone as the weapon and protect the planet from alien attack. Using the geolocation AR technology, fight the aliens in your location.
Players can enjoy the sci-fi environment and discover the confidentiality of the galactic wars. The game has fantasizing graphics with challenging plots making it super interactive.
11. Nightenfell: Shared AR
The best in class shooter game with lots of riddles, spells, and comets. This is a fresh multiplayer game by Hookbang LLC- play as a team and combine all the powers to reach the highest level.
The players have to shoot virtual comets and defend their planet. Players can even team with the wizards, use magic spells to freeze time, and use mushrooms to restore energy.
12. Zombie GO
In this era, Zombie-based games in the augmented reality are a big deal. In this game, the players can encounter zombie apocalypse in real-time, and it is a prime example of the best shooting game.
As the gamer walks through the park, school or home- the zombie pops up on the screen. Arm yourself with a weapon of your choice and start attacking. The ‘First Aid’ button restores the player’s health. The game is powered by the Unity engine and is available exclusively for Android.
13. Zombie Gunship Revenant AR
Fascinating zombie shooting game with intense battles, high-quality graphics, powerful shooting experience. The players are at the military helicopter loaded with ammo to hunch down the zombies.
The players have to fly the helicopter with the body movement, armed with sniper pods, rockets, guns, and missiles. For night vision, the players can to the infra-red mode in their camera.
Quest and Sports AR games
With the Augmented reality, you can experience amazing quests in the real world. In search of unlocking the mysteries, you get to know more about the neighborhood, go to different countries, meet new people and find hidden treasures. And as a sports fan, experience the best of the sports game with the AR technology to give you an adrenaline rush.
14. AR Sports Basketball
This is an exclusive treat for iOS basketball lovers. The game uses the basic AR technology that allows players to shoot hoops at any time or location. To play the game, you have to position the hoop in an area, and shoot balls.
You can play individually or as Player 1 and Player 2. Also, the game has different modes like multiplayer, normal, and desk.
15. Geocaching
Play the world’s best treasure hunting game that has followers from around the globe. The game encourages players to explore the unexplored places on the planet.
You can receive the instructions from the AR app on where to look for the geocache, and it can be on the mountain top or the next building rooftop. You find the photo, log it in, and hide it for the other geocachers.
16. Invizimals: The Resistance
This game reminds a bit of Pokemon GO and is one of the best examples of next-gen AR games. This is the game for the PlayStation Vita and this is an RPG game that hunts for incredible creatures and saves them for extinction.
The Xtractors are the army that wants to destroy the creatures, and your job is to fight the army.
17. Zombies, Run!
Complete the mission by running or walking. This AR game gives a fascinating adventure by listening to different narrations and music in your headphones.
The aim of the game is that the player has to survive a zombie attack while collecting several items.
Table and Board AR games
Board and table games are suitable for single and multiplayer. Make the old school game more exciting using augmented reality technology.
18. AR Smash Tanks
Fight the epic tank battles on your mobile phone, you can play the multiplayer mode with one or two devices and smash the enemies with the tank. The game is available on both Android and iOS. Players have to demolish the enemy tanks, and tap the phone screen to aim, fire, and pull missiles.
19. Beer Pong AR
This is the classic game developed on ARCore with simple gameplay. You can play this game anywhere and anytime with friends and have endless fun. To play the game, find an area to place the beer and move along the area to find out the best angle and launch the ball.
20. Jenga AR
The game has impressive graphics with challenging mode. This game can be played by two to five players and they can grab blocks with the mobile phone and use delicate touches to remove the block. This game is similar to classic Jenga.
21. PulzAR
This is the fascinating and AR game created for the PlayStation Vita. This game reminds the player of Sci-Fi films. The players have to use laser weapons to attack the asteroids from destroying the Earth. It is a truly challenging game with the best of AR technology.
22. Slingshot Island
Slingshot to destruct the castle. With the augmented reality, you can strike the castle using the phone’s controller and fire the foes. To make the game engaging, the players have to find the precious magic dragon egg. There is 30 level and the players can use different elements like cluster bombs, parachute bombs, missiles, or rocks.
AR-based Horror games
Horror based games are exciting and thrilling to play, but when made in augmented reality it gets on your nerves. The augmented reality-based horror games will give you an enthralling experience.
23. Night Terrors
This is how an AR-based game should be and would be. Night Terrors game’s trailer itself gave chills to the audience. This scary game was first introduced to the audience through a funding campaign on Indiegogo. This game is really as hell, the AR game transforms the real world into a dark scary monster world.
24. Peronio Pop-Up Book
This game is a book based game that combines augmented reality and virtual reality technology into a special adventure. This game has won the award for the Best AR game in 2015 by Qualcomm Vuforia.
The game is about a boy, who is unsure of who he wants to become as a man. Follow Peronio, the boy who doesn’t want to be an ordinary dentist, but a dentist to the dragons-as they have pointy teeth. Turn each page to face new challenges.
25. Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
This game has an interesting game plots similar to a mysterious movie. Experience the thrill with Nintendo’s 3Ds.
As we have seen the best of AR game, it is evident that the developers will keep on improving and enhancing the AR games with more features of the technology in the future.
