Augmented Stories is the first storytelling iOS ARKit app that I’ve downloaded and experienced so far. As of the time of writing, the app features a single story called Joe the Lonely Sailor. The story tells the adventure of a sailor in a beautiful cartoon art-style and animation.
This AR app was developed by Unimersiv, a company with a focus on educational VR experiences like Dinos, Human Brain, Anatomy VR, Titanic and other educational VR applications. It seems that the company also try to make its first steps into the AR realm with this new app. I’ve checked their app portfolio on the app store, and it has only two small non-AR games.
Anyways, let’s talk more about this little app called Augmented Stories.
Although the app feels like a testing ground for other things to come, it was done in a very professional way with high-quality visuals, animations, as well as professional-grade narration.
To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I first download the app. I’ve read the description words like “magical stories” but it didn’t really tell me which age group this app is aimed at, but I assumed it was intended for kids. I think that the app needs better screenshots and a better description to allow users to understand what to expect from this app and know for whom this app is designed for.
Although I am an adult and not particularly interested in short stories for children for myself, this app was a perfect one to show to my niece. I’m sure many of you have someone young in the family who will find this app interesting. If I was a parent, I know that I would be excited to share this AR experience with my child.
The voice of the female narrator is very calm yet presents the story in a very engaging and exciting way. A moment I start watching it I was actually thrilled by it. I knew I had to see it to the end in order to provide you with this review, but I actually found myself enjoying every second of it. Of course, some books are more engaging for kids than adults, but as a comic books’ fan, I found myself enjoying the visual experience a lot.
This makes me think about a great idea. Just think about an app where you can get to see a comic book appearing live and animated in the living room in AR. If you are a developer and reading these lines, why won’t you develop something like that?
Joe the Sailor story takes place in different places. The entire experience is taking place in a rather small area. Instead of pages, the game has this kind of animation that resizes the stage until it’s invisible, then the stage is replaced and the new one is enlarged again. I don’t know if this is the best presentation for stages because it just interfered with the flow of both the story-telling and the AR experience. I would something like a carousel where the current stage is replaced by rotating it on the Y-axis and have the second stage gradually appears into play.
This app made me think about the whole idea of storytelling in augmented reality. I really wanted to know fun it is watching 3D animated children stories in augmented reality and to my surprise, it worked well. I actually find it really entertaining watching the story on the window’s porch while my get is in the frame looking at the falling rain.
The developer designed the AR experience properly. Users can resize, rotate and reposition the stage very easily. This makes it simple for parents to position the story in any way so it will be comfortable for them to watch it with their kids. You can even spawn it on the bed and have you and your children enjoy a great children’s story together. I’m sure children will be fascinated by the fact that this story is like anything that they’ve seen before and that it actually takes place in their own room.
I can’t deny the fact that even after spending tons of hours with AR, the AR experience still feels magical to me and I can assure you that it’s even more so with kids, especially when they experience it for the first time.
After finishing the first story I felt that it would have been much better if there was some sort of interaction so kids can interact with the characters in the game. I’m not talking about having the character play like a virtual pet simulator, but some small interactions like was done in the children’s app My Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I think children will be fascinated with the ability to actually interact with the story and this will definitely make the storytelling experience much more “magical” for children.
The graphics quality is great, the animations were made really well considering the small stage that the story takes place at. The scene is vibrant and cheerful, there is a good attention to small details and I like the use of large objects (e.g. lighthouse) rather than having it play out flat. The story also has a very nice educational message to children, which is not less important than any other aspects that I’ve mentioned here. In fact, the whole story was made this way as a channeling medium to help bring an important educational lesson for children and it was done in a very entertaining, charming and engaging way.
Conclusion
Augmented Stories was a pleasant surprise. If I was able to enjoy this children’s story as an adult, I have no doubt that kids will be fully immersed in it. I felt a bit disappointed that there was only one story. However, there is a second story called “A Christmas Story”, which I guess will be unlocked for Christmas. It does say “Coming soon”, so I guess it will be released in late December right before Christmas.
As I mentioned earlier in the review, it would be really nice to have interactivity as part of the storytelling AR experience. Nonetheless, the app does deliver a magnificent and immersive storytelling experience that optimized well for Augmented Reality—Definitely recommended, especially for children and parents 🙂
You can download it from the app store here.