02 Jun
Posted by Rob Kalajian as CCGs, Electronic Games
HoloGrid: Monster Battle is a new augmented reality game currently being Kickstarter by HappyGiant and Phil Tippett. Phil is well known in the movie industry as a monster designer. He’s the one who created the famous Holochess scene in the original Star Wars.
HappyGiant sent me some demo cards to use, and early access to their demo app. I was a bit confused at first, but figured out the app is just to test the AR of the cards, and show off a teaser trailer in AR using one of the board cards. You can see me stumble through the demo below. Also, I made a mistake and said the game was up on YouTube in the start of the video. I meant Kickstarter.
There’s currently 4 days left in the campaign, and they have a bit to go before the game is funded. The tech is really cool, as you can see in the video, but I would have loved some hands-on gameplay to get a better feel of what the game will be like. I like what I’ve seen so far, so I’m hoping the game funds so I can dig a bit deeper into it.
04 May
Posted by Rob Kalajian as CCGs, Electronic Games, Miniatures
Phil Tippett is no stranger to monsters. As a two-time Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Director, he’s worked on projects such as Star Wars and Jurassic Park. One of his most memorable creations was the Holo Chess scene in the original Star Wars, also seen again in The Force Awakens.
Piggybacking on that, Phil teamed up with HappyGiant to create a new CCG with an AR element. HoloGrid: Monster Battle is a CCG with a miniatures and board element to it. With an accompanying app, creatures from the cards can be brought to life and battled. Don’t really care for the AR stuff? You can also play the game non-digitally with a physical board and minis.
HoloGrid is currently being Kickstarted, and is already off to a great start, but only time will tell how successful such a game can really be. I think the option to play completely offline with physical pieces will be a great help, as long as the gameplay holds up.