Comments on: Sky Siege: iPhone Augmented Reality Gaming, Still Rough

By: Peter Hundleby

Peter Hundleby — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:46:21 +0000

I bought this game today after Bruce Sterling mentioned it on Wired and really enjoyed it – I read your comments but I think there is something much more to it than just the Augmented Reality feature. What makes it different from any other mobile or computer game I know is the (physical) spatial awareness required to play it. You don’t sit slouched in front of a computer screen or bent over twiddling your thumbs but you have to really move. I alternated between visualizing where to point down to reload (the ammo is placed around your feet) but at the same time mentally trying to keep track of where the target was in space (I can imagine how an air traffic controller would feel when he tries to find his coffee)
So while augmented reality games have been done before (with less polished graphics) for phones I think the whole package here is highly original… and at least it will make kids exercise a few more muscles!

By: Benny

Benny — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:27:22 +0000

There’s also a game called Gunman in the App Store that relies on augmented reality. It is equally unimpressive though.

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:05:42 +0000

Im a researcher in this area, and this is legit Augmented Reality in the sense that Nearest Tube etc. apps are – an overlay onto the world, which the graphics are registered in space. Interaction with environment would require very robust computer vision techniques detecting arbitrary surfaces etc. and I think it will be a while before any technique especially on the iPhone is fast enough to support a game like this with rapid viewpoint motion. But this really is a sign of things to come and is easily worth it to get a taste for games to come. Aside of the AR, the game is impressive and a lot of fun in the the VR mode (I kind of like looking at the virtual sky instead of my office ceiling) – and it does represent a technical achievement in the tracking. You can also twist the view and it keeps track. The VR mode gives slightly faster gameplay too.

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:15:20 +0000

Hey, I was using yourversion and your blog came up. Cool stuff. Thanks for the review of an AR app. I think that there is a lot of potential in the field for sure and there should be some exciting stuff coming out of the shoot shortly. The problem is that you can’t really just put an image over your environment and call it an AR app. You need to have whatever is in your game actually interacting with your environment, and it seems like that is the real challenge of the future.

On the other hand, that app looks pretty good and I agree that it’s a cool tech demo if nothing else.