Over the past couple of years, mobile games have made a tremendous leap in their development. Not only has the quality of the graphics increased greatly, but many games have moved online, so recently there has been a fashion for the interactive component. In most cases, this interaction is achieved through the use of augmented reality, thanks to which users, firstly, were able to be pulled out onto the streets, and, secondly, to force them to interact with the surrounding space and objects encountered. Therefore, it is not surprising that Google decided to participate in this a little.
Google Maps powered gaming will soon be the new normal
Google opened up Google Maps to developers, allowing them to use branded maps as the basis for games. Thus, studios will be able to build an interactive component using real infrastructure and navigation data. Previously, such an opportunity was open only to large studios and only on special request. But since more and more developers have recently begun to request access to map data, Google decided to simplify the rules and make them the same for everyone.
Interactive games for Android
Pokemon Go is one of the most popular map and environment based games
In fact, the ability to use Google Maps data can greatly enhance the quality of interactive and AR games that involve exploring the environment. Indeed, in this way, developers will be able to more accurately implement their games, as well as modify the game world, using information about real objects as a basis. For example, thanks to this opportunity, it will be possible to show how a specific area would look after a nuclear explosion, global warming or a meteorite impact, not to mention the use of other special effects.
To facilitate the process of developing games based on real-world terrain, Google created a special set of tools, or, a kind of base. As a result, the developer takes them as a basis, and then simply begins to refine the visible space, giving it the look that was originally planned by the script. That is, in fact, the developer receives a certain blank, and then he designs it just to his liking, inscribing the necessary objects into the real-game world, adding special effects and much more.
Augmented reality games
Google decided to help developers create games based on Google Maps and offered them unique tools
In addition to development tools, Google offered developers a set of mechanisms to facilitate the gameplay using data from Google Maps. Mixed Zoom will be one such mechanism. According to the developers, it will improve the quality of displaying objects located close to the player, with a commensurate decrease in the quality of displaying distant objects, as is done in modern games. This allows you to simultaneously increase the level of visible graphics and at the same time not heavily load the hardware with a large stream of incoming data.
In the foreseeable future, the results of Google's activities will become more evident. Over time, developers will begin to actively apply the developments proposed by the search giant to create interactive games that will give users an incentive to leave the house and appreciate the mechanics and gameplay of the new title literally in the fields. Practice has shown that such games are popular, since Pokemon Go, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter AR have found a large audience, who now cannot imagine their life without gameplay and at the same time do not sit within four walls.