Pokémon Go shows it’s time for real-world games

Real-world game design for mobile has its roots in pervasive game design, augmented reality, mixed reality, ubiquitous gaming, and a dozen or so other classifications. None of these are perfect, but real world is the most accommodating and carries the best chance of entering mainstream parlance. While the pioneers of this niche are largely slaughtered under the banner of location-based gaming, Niantic’s Pokémon GO, built on substantial learning from Ingress, has finally delivered.

Raincrow Studios has been in the real world sandbox for several years, piloting concepts and developing an ecosystem to rapidly produce real world titles. These concepts provide a natural environment for AR elements. In our flagship title Covens, launching late 2016, players will be able to view a physical location through their device and see magical wards placed by other players to protect the location. It also works well for collectibles that can be triggered off of real world symbols (think: a Starbucks logo or a custom symbol at a night club). Strong real world design accommodates AR not for the sake of AR, or to cue up a buzzword, but because it works swimmingly within the flow of the game.