It's here, yo
(A)ugmented (R)eality and (I)nteractive (S)torytelling
Basic Overview of ARIS:
1. You make games by creating “objects” and placing them on a GoogleMap (all integrated into the editor). There are three kinds of objects: “Characters” (that players can talk to), “items” (that players can pick up and drop off at various locations), and “plaques” (that pop up with information).
2. You can upload media such as photos or video for all these types of objects. For example, you can create a character, upload an image as its “icon” (what pops up on the player’s GoogleMap while they move around), upload another photo for the player to see when they actually interact with the character, and also upload a video that pops up when the player gets close enough to the character’s location.
3. All the objects allow you to set a range of “requirements.” For example, you can set a character to only appear on a player’s map after they’ve picked up a certain item, or you can make a plaque disappear after a player views it. You can also adjust the distance a player needs to be from an object to view it. And you can set objects to be “invisible,” in which case they won’t appear on players’ maps until they are within a certain range (which you set).
4. You can also have players upload photos and video themselves, as part of the game. This content then functions like an “item” in the game, so players can drop it somewhere and another player can pick it up, view it, and move it around.
In short, this program is simple and really cool. In the space of about half an hour, I created a very simple test game in my neighborhood: players first view a plaque telling them to go find a rare “herb” to save a dying map. Once they read this plaque (located on my porch) they have to go across the street and pick up the herb (an item in the game), at which point another plaque pops up telling them to go save “Johnny,” a character that then pops up on their map. They walk up to Johnny (a few blocks away), hear his dying pleas for the herb, drop off the item. At that point, another character (“Jenny”) pops up to congratulate them and tells them to snap a picture to document the moment and to take the picture to Johnny’s girlfriend. When the player takes a picture, “Jessica” (back at my apartment) pops up on their map. They take her the photo. Game over.