belze083
Ensign
- Registriert
- Juli 2009
- Beiträge
- 153
As many suspected from the mysterious viral marketing tomfoolery last week, Google’s Niantic Labs is indeed releasing a massively multiplayer map-based mobile online augmented reality game. Just say MMMMOARG and people in the know will get what you mean. The game is called Ingress, and it’s free and is intended to be played globally. Its J.J. Abramsesque plot revolves around a strange and powerful energy force (are there any other kinds?) that must be stopped or, depending on how you feel about mysterious energy forces, encouraged. You pick a side, pro-energy or anti-energy, and do battle in the real world against the other side by linking energy hot spots to one another, creating protected zones on the map. The first team to dominate the world wins, just like IRL. The other team tries to break those links and, Othello-like, flip the areas back to their side. Here’s the promo video.
John Hanke, who leads the Niantic Labs group within Google (and was a cofounder of Keyhole, the company that became Google Earth), says his team was inspired by geo-caching but wanted to take that idea to a new level, essentially “draping” the world of the game onto the real world. The energy hot spots, also known as portals, are located on top of notable landmarks in cities around the world and players use their phone’s map to check in at as many spots as possible. Some of the check-ins will involve retailers and brands that Google cut deals with in advance, including Jamba Juice, Zipcar, Hint Water and Chrome messenger bags. Players can also take walks on designated paths to pick up energy points to make their characters stronger and more able to flip portals their way.
Hanke says the game has a beginning, middle and end, and should take about a year and a half to come to its completion. There will be a steady stream of cut-scenes and videos released by Niantic to keep players engaged in the plot. Hanke wouldn’t discuss the budget for the game but said, “it’s less than you might think.
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Homepage:
http://www.nianticproject.com/
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