In this post, I want to talk about immersion in augmented reality games. To be more specific, what makes an AR game feels great when you play in on your mobile device? What types of gameplay mechanics work really well, and which are not? In this article, I’ll talk about the things that help improve immersion in AR games, at least as far as I can see it and based on my experience so far.
I’ve been playing a lot of ARKit games lately. Some of those games wrapped me with excitement and I felt I was so “inside” the game. The moment I forget about what’s happening outside the game, I know I am having a blast and I enjoy it.
It’s easier to feel that immersion in virtual reality games. Your entire field of view of view ti consumed by the game’s content and sound. Furthermore, the motion controllers and room-scale gameplay make the experience more “connected”. By the word “connected” I mean you feel completely part of the game.
In Augmented Reality games, things are different. You get to observe the game through a “window”, the mobile device’s display. Because the focus is on the screen, everything around it is not relevant because it’s not part of the game. Whatever I see using my peripheral vision outside the screen area is usually blurry. My focus is on what’s happening on the screen, not outside it.
So in that aspect, playing an AR game isn’t different than playing a regular game on your phone or tablet. So what makes AR games different than other non-AR games?
Well, it depends on the type of game you are playing. Games that use movement as gameplay mechanic help create a more compelling experience. This help creates an association between the player’s movement and what happens on screen. Although it’s not like VR where you can have a 1:1 reproduction of your body and hand movement in the virtual world, it does bring the gap between the physical and the virtual. A good example for that is in puzzle games like AMON. In AMON the player needs to solve puzzles by observing the pieces from different perspectives and has the option to interact with objects through the touchscreen.
In some Augmented Reality games, you can get a very similar interaction like you will get in real life. A good example of that is a game powARdup. In this game, you use your mobile device as a remote controller to control an hovering spaceship. This interaction is very similar to controlling a remote controlled car in real life. The mobile device is like the remote controller. On the iPad, the experience felt very authentic because of the large display. If there weren’t any bezels or any difference in the focal length of the camera and optical distortions, it would have felt even more persuasive.
This is why HoloLens was able to deliver such an immersive AR experience. There was a very little discontinuity between the physical and the virtual. Your entire field of view, like in VR, was available for the app. The virtual felt as part of the real world like any other object. In fact, if it was a realistic 3D model with accurate lighting, you wouldn’t even know that that object is virtual.
Seeing virtual object on the screen alone isn’t what going to increase the immersion in AR. One of the things that can help enhance the immersion is if an object interacts with real objects with the physical environment. Seeing a dragon sitting on my table in my real world is a nice experience. This is one type of interactions that ARKit supports. Developers can put any virtual objects on surfaces detected by the framework.
A great AR experience comes when you get to feel that your movement affects what’s happening on the screen. This is when you perceive the difference between a regular 3D game and an AR game. This is when you get the virtual seamlessly blends with the real world. It can also happen when a virtual objects interact with physical objects. For example, when a virtual pet jumps from one surface to the other( e.g. from the couch to the floor). This also increases the immersion because it helps lessen the gap between the real and the virtual.
Pet simulators are a good example of that, but due to the limitation of the technology, developers don’t make the pet jump from one place to the other. The reason is that each user has a different place with different surfaces sizes. Furthermore, it can lead to inconsistent results that will impair the visual experience. This is why most of the AR games that you see usually run on a single surface.
If the app could have scanned the entire room and build a 3D map in a few seconds, developers could have built an experience that a work around the entire environment. With ARKit, you don’t count on the user to map the entire area. Let alone that the initial scanning is not accurate by the millimeter nor that fast. Furthermore, even with a better scanning technology like Google Tango, there are still hidden places because the scan doesn’t map the objects from all directions (unless you physically go there and map it).
Example of AR Games that Nailed it Right
One of the most immersive games that I got to play in augmented reality is called Meddling Martians AR. In this game, you use your device like a bucket and you need to capture falling bombs before they reach the floor. What I loved about the game is that it uses the same principals I’ve mentioned above to increase immersion. For example, moving around the environment to catch the bombs in the real-world space. The game applies a gameplay mechanic that makes the virtual feel more physical. When the bomb intersects with the mobile device it yields a physics response.
When I played the game, the bomb felt physical, not like an overlayed virtual objects on my screen. At that moment I could even sense the bomb’s weight.
I felt the same way when I played the game AMON where the stone puzzle pieces moved when I bumped into them with my iPad. At that moment that puzzle piece moved, it felt real. Well, you can point at any object in your room now, how do you know if it’s real or virtual? Well, you probably going to touch it and see if you can feel it if it has mass if there is some sort of haptic feedback.The same goes to augmented reality. There can be some sort of haptic feedback and reaction of the virtual object upon intersection. Once applied in games, this can help improve the immersion as well.
Having said that, a reaction doesn’t have to happen physically. It can happen without being connected physically with the virtual. For example, seeing a virtual pet looking into your eyes, moving around with the mobile device and seeing a pet following you. It happened to me when I played the game Follow Me Dragon. The immersion occurs when you see that the virtual is aware of your presence. This is why virtual pet simulators in augmented reality make such a big impression on new AR users. Even if you don’t move around, seeing a virtual object, especially a living one like an animal, being aware of your existence help improve immersion times fold.
That being said, there are some Augmented Reality apps that combine the two together, like the virtual world inside the portal in Alice in Wonderland AR quest. Other ARKit games like Zombie Gunship Revenant AR lead me to a strong Strategic Immersion alongside some degree of spatial immersion, especially when I played it on the iPad which has a large display. Being able to physically move around the 3D battlefield felt so satisfying. The alignment of the movement of my body with the in-game experience felt so satisfying. It felt far better than sitting in place and controlling the helicopter with touch controls. That experience redefined for me that immersion in AR is all about. If it combined the other aspects that I was talking about, it would have been out of this world.
Summing things up
Playing lots of AR games gave me a good understanding what type of interaction and gameplay mechanics can work well in augmented reality games. There is no one way to do it. Developers can tacks it in one way or use several ways to enhance the immersion and help their games have a stronger emotional impact on the player.
Some of those games that I’ve mentioned above di an excellent job with it, but there are many others that didn’t. Not every game in AR convinced me to play it in AR. Some games I prefer not playing in AR mode.
I’m learning new things about the experience in AR every day. It’s really exciting to see the different type of AR games that people are developing. Every day I find out about AR experiences that bring new type of gameplay mechanics that I haven’t thought about before. It’s great that this new technology brings birth to some many great new games that you wouldn’t able to experience without it.
I just can’t wait for the AR games I’m going to play tomorrow. Thanks for reading.