Reality Clash Developer Diary – Part Two

Welcome to the second of our updates about mobile augmented reality (AR) combat videogame Reality Clash and what our developers are doing, to keep you informed about our journey and hopefully offering you some useful insight on the creative process.

If you need a reminder about the game itself, it’s essentially ‘Pokémon Go meets Call of Duty’ for iOS and Android devices – but here’s a link to the first instalment to give you an overview.

Our developers are continuing to prototype the core features of the videogame, and the last couple of weeks have seen geolocation and mapping becoming the focus of research and development.

The team has been evaluating various technologies to ensure that Reality Clash maps are of the highest possible resolution.

Offering highly scalable, high-definition maps is an important feature of the game and we want players to feel engaged with the map screen as much as with the AR gameplay. 3D buildings provide an additional level of detail and depth as you scroll around your local environment to find other players.

The current artwork shown here is still placeholder but you can see how this added depth to buildings greatly improves the perception that you are viewing the world from a high-tech vantage point.

Accurate geo-location is difficult to achieve and can raise problems like those seen in the image above when we cannot accurately overlay buildings on their real-world counterparts.

To help address these problems, the design and art teams are working closely with the technology team to ensure that even if the player does not have an accurate GPS signal they can still play the game and these confusing artefacts do not hamper their enjoyment.

There’ll be more about this in future weeks as we start to reveal our work on the AR interface.

Our team is also working round-the-clock on the Reality Clash trading platform to bring this to our Initial Coin Offering (ICO) funding backers, something we touched on briefly in the last diary. The weapon scarcity and valuation structure is nearing completion, while all weaponry for the first batch release has been completed. Community feedback on the weaponry has been very positive so far. Our backers will soon be able to get their hands on the first batch of weaponry and begin building their arsenal.

Above is one example of an exclusive Elite Assault gun, which will be available on the trading platform from launch.

In our next Dev Diary we’ll be focussing on how we’re prototyping different approaches to blending real and virtual worlds together.

Reality Gaming Group Teams With Gizer To Bring Tournament Play To Reality Clash

Whilst virtual reality (VR) videogaming has certainly had a number of star turns in 2017, particularly in the last few months with Fallout 4 VR, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, DOOM VFR and L.A. Noire: The VR Case FilesIt is augmented reality (AR) which has arguably seen the biggest development, encapsulated by the debuts and evolutions of both ARKit and ARCore. The AR development platforms of Apple and Google respectively.

This has led to a number of developments within the AR field and a lot more developers creating AR videogames and software.

One such developer is Reality Gaming Group who are producing Reality Clash, a free-to-play AR videogame which is set to be released for both iPhone and Android devices in the third quarter of 2018. In Reality Clash your smartphone’s camera is used to render an AR view of the world on-screen. It will feature geolocation gameplay encouraging players to enter face-to-face combat with each other in real time.

Reality Gaming Group will soon be telling the story of their development of Reality Clash in a new development diary series exclusive to VRFocus. The first part of which will be published tomorrow.

Apart form a recent expansion of its Philippines based development hub which is working on the title, today the studio announced the news of a new partnership with eSports app Gizer. The addition of Gizer unlocks the possibility of tournament play for Reality Clash players.  Allowing them to chat, win prizes and even generate team sponsorship.

“We are excited to leverage Gizer to assist in building our fun, competitive community. With their cutting edge platform we can offer Reality Clash players competitive tournaments for prizes and sponsorship.” Said Morten Rongaard, Co-Founder of Reality Gaming Group. “Gizer offers a social element, a marketplace element, and a profile identity on the blockchain. We look forward to working with the Gizer team, rolling out group tournaments and bringing AR content to their community.”

“Reality Clash is the type of envelope-pushing game we’re excited to work with for a number of reasons.” Explained Jonathan Kerstein, Rongaard’s opposite number at Gizer. “Their use of AR in the mobile combat space will immediately broaden the selection of games available to the Gizer community. Our partnership will also enable Reality Clash’s existing community to leverage Gizer’s event creation and discovery infrastructure, forming their own vibrant community within the Global Gaming Network from day one.”

Gizer is available on both the App store and Google Play store, you can see a teaser trailer for Reality Clash below. VRFocus will have more about the title very soon.

 

 

 

BAFTA Breakthrough Winner Joins Reality Clash Development Team

Back in August, independent developers Reality Gaming Group launched an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for a blockchain-powered crypto currency, hoping to raise money for the development of a sophisticated player vs player augmented reality (AR) title called Reality Clash. Now the company is boosting its development team with the addition of award winner Henry Hoffman.

Reality Gaming Group successfully raised $3.5 million (USD) in funding with its ICO, and has invested that money in an expansion of its development teams, significantly expanding its Philippines team who are working on the blockchain-based Armory weapon trading platform for the title, as well as hiring significant talent such as the aforementioned Henry Hoffman, who has previously been the recipient of a BAFTA Breakthrough award. The development team hope that Hoffman’s experience and creativity will be an asset as they attempt to bring the complexity of Reality Clash to life.

Reality Clash is an AR title that using location data to allow users to invite local players for an AR-enhanced PvP battle, using a battlefield which can be placed on to many real-world locations such as woodlands and fields, using a Capture the Flag gameplay style to engage in large scale AR battles.

reality clash screen1

“I’m delighted to be joining a great team to work on one of the most ambitious mobile games projects to date – I can’t wait to get started,” said Hoffman. “As soon as I heard that Reality Clash combined AR, crypto and multiplayer I knew it was a game I wanted to be part of. It’s going to bring the world of crypto and gaming together in a way that’s never been attempted before.”

Tony Pearce, Reality Gaming Group co-founder, said: “We were absolutely thrilled with the level of participation in the Reality Clash ICO, and now we’re even more excited to embark on the next stage of that journey – the expansion of our development team as we work towards delivering what is a hugely exciting project. We’re privileged to have a talent like Henry as part of the Reality Gaming Group team.”

VRFocus will bring you further news on Reality Clash as it becomes available.

AR Title Reality Clash to Use Crypto Coin To Raise Funding

Upcoming mobile augmented reality (AR) title Reality Clash is planning on using a novel way of raising funding for further development. The developers at Reality Gaming Group are planning on raising money by launching an ‘Initial Coin Offering’ using Ethereum blockchain crypto currency.

Reality Clash will be free-to-play, using the camera on a smartphone to render an AR view of the landscape, using geolocation technology in order to invite other players in the local area to participate in face-to-face combat. Players will be able to set up tournaments in real locations such as parks and woodlands.

Basic gameplay is modelled after ‘capture the flag’ with players able to set up their own headquarters and protect it from attack, or range out to conquer more territory, collecting ammo, heath packs or other bonus items. The title will also have an in-game economy that allows users to buy and sell virtual weapons using in-game currency, letting players become virtual arms dealers.

reality clash screen1

To tie in to the virtual economy and fund the development of the title, Reality Gaming Group is using Ethereum blockchain cryptocurrency to launch and Initial Coin Offering (ICO), through which it hopes to raise $1.5 million (USD). The ICO will be available from 29th August, and will give players the chance to buy special premium in-game currency and gain access to exclusive weapons.

Ethereum cryptocurrency has recently been in the news due to crypto miners buying up the available stock of high-end graphics cards, causing a run on supply and in turn causing a price hike as supplies of VR-ready graphics cards dwindled.

Tony Pearce, Reality Gaming Group co-founder, said: “Reality Clash is a tremendously innovative game that also gives gamers a unique opportunity to get into the fast-moving world of ICOs and crypto-currency trading.”

You can watch the teaser trailer for Reality Clash below. Further information can be found at the official Reality Clash website.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Reality Clash and other AR titles as it becomes available.