EXO: Arena
A new kind of video gameEXO: Arena is augmented reality laser tag. Players meet outdoors, link their phones, and zap each other, navigating real-world obstacles as well as virtual features depicted on their phones.
The inspiration for Arena was Tron, the 1982 film in which a programmer competes in virtual combat games. My co-designer and I had always wanted to do this as kids. As adults, we realized it was possible.
A second motivation was to reverse the trend of sedentary games and isolating screen time. EXO: Arena can't be played indoors, and it can't be played alone. Players get the benefit of moving their bodies and meeting face to face.
Technical highlights of the project include a novel application of Bluetooth for linking players, servers designed specifically for the project, and a hardware-accelerated vector drawing library that generates '80s-style graphics with the framerates of today.
Details
2014 · iOSIndependent Project
App Store
Press
Technologies
- C++
- Objective-C
- Ruby
- Cocos2D
- OpenGL
Collaborators
- Carla Marin · Artist
- Pat King · Sound Artist
- Yury Gitman · Designer