Augmented Reality Game Review #1: Krikey
Aurora Reality reviews a selection of augmented reality applications and games available on iOS and Android products. The goal of these reviews is to take a critical look at the playability and potential of the different products while providing an informative product description for potential consumers and other developers. We want to identify key trends in augmented reality and shape the future of this useful technology.
Background:
Krikey's company mission is to "entertain the world with Augmented Reality". The company embarked on this mission with its signature mobile phone application, Krikey. The social media app uses a variety of fun, accessible mini games that can be played alone, with friends, or with complete strangers. The application has multiple mini games available within, including beach volleyball, basketball, and mini golf. It also features content developed in conjunction with movies such as 'Goosebumps 2' and organizations like The Ellen Fund. The app is available for free through the Apple app store and Google Play store.
Game Experience:
The Krikey app has eleven mini games ranging across a variety of activities, from shooting virtual basketballs to crawling around with gorillas. All of the rendered animations are well-executed, with vivid colors and cute cartoony features. Still, the games are relatively simple, requiring the user to flick or tap a playable object to achieve a higher score than their opponent.
As an example, 'Gorillas', a mini game made in conjunction with The Ellen Fund, immerses the user in a jungle world, where they can see baby gorillas walking around in the undergrowth. But rather than truly interacting with the gorillas, the user is tasked with finding food via the tapping of nearby termite hills and berry bushes.
The gameplay is fairly consistent, with some stuttering and calibration needed to maintain the augmented reality playscape on the user's phone. The application also does use a large amount of battery to populate all of its mini games, which can cause some overheating or unexpected shut downs on older smart phone models.
Technology:
The app is built on AR Foundation, an SDK toolkit which incorporates both Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore to provide advanced AR functionality.
The AR Foundation SDK allows Krikey to use ARCore functions such as Camera Translation, Plane Detection and other advanced features which improve the AR experience for users.
Krikey is said to be able to allow users in different real-world locations to play together by using virtual machines to connect two users and use the smartphone camera to map the physical space in order to accurately place AR objects. Users then compete to get the highest score.
Conclusion:
Overall, Krikey Inc.'s 'Krikey' has a ton of potential. The well-designed visuals and burgeoning mini game offering give a glimpse into the varied future of Augmented Reality gaming. Multiplayer AR games are still being perfected, and Krikey's effort is a good starting point for the industry. Finally, the company's growing number of collaborative projects with other brands shows the potential for external organizations to reach customers in creative ways through the use of augmented reality technology.