A Developer Uses The Real-World as Physics-Based Game Levels in AR

Playing meticulously crafted levels with blockouts turned into final environments featuring shiny textures and procedural shaders is always fun, we know that. But what if we used the real world as the game's playground? Ian Curtis, an XR Developer Support Engineer at Niantic, has decided to play with this idea and build an AR level that uses a real kitchen as a game's level. 

The developer showcased a real-time augmented reality prototype using a physics-based character controller and the whole thing is running on the web. The prototype features a game character running and jumping around a kitchen interacting with game objects and even collecting coins – old uncle Mario would be proud of his relative in augmented reality. 

The developer shared this WebAR experience is anchored to a real-world location using Niantic VPS. The project uses ammo.js for the physics system, "adjusting velocity via joystick input to guide the character's movements and handle jump mechanics." The creator was kind enough to also share a debug visual for reference:

Ian Curtis shared in comments that it took around 20 hours to assemble this experience. Inspired by the demo, one of the comments also suggested developing a skateboard game in a similar style that would utilize real-world objects and locations. 

Here are some of the other cool AR experiments recently shared by the developer: 

In case you missed the news, Ian Curtis has also recently turned the living room into a retro-style Game Boy-inspired game level using AR and 8th Wall's VPS technology. Learn more here.

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