Do you want to know what’s next for the game industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging areas of the industry at GamesBeat Summit Next in October. Register today.
Universal has announced its latest Jurassic World tie-in product: a Pokémon Go-style AR app called DinoTracker. Allows players to interact with dinos from the recently released lordship movie and to pick up little facts about their real-life counterparts.
The premise of the app is quite simple: using their phone’s camera, players can “follow” tracks of dinos in the world around them. When they find the dinos – among 10 prehistoric characters to find – they can feed them with their hands. Developed by Trigger XR, the game uses Niantic’s Lightship ARDK to recognize different surfaces and spaces and map the appropriately sized dino to the space around the user.
GamesBeat spoke to Jason Yim, CEO of Trigger XR, about the app. He noted that the functions of the lightship allow the dinosaurs to interact with the environment in a way. “Normally AR always appears as a top layer, which breaks credibility. Now, with object occlusion, you can see a dino appear from behind a tree or hide behind objects in the sky. That adds a lot to the consumer feeling that it is really there.” Dinos can also follow users with their heads and become aggressive if they get too close.
This isn’t the first time a Jurassic World connection app has used AR technology to place dinos in the real world – 2018’s Jurassic World Alive launched roughly around the film’s release Fallen Kingdom. That game takes much more inspiration from Pokémon Go than Dinotracker.
The GamesBeat credo when talking about the game industry, is ‘where passion and business meet’. What does this mean? We want to tell you how important news is to you — not just as a decision maker in a game studio, but also as a game fan. Whether you’re reading our articles, listening to our podcasts, or watching our videos, GamesBeat helps you learn and have fun with the industry. Learn more about membership.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.