Update, 5/4/2016, 9:18am PT: A Kickstarter campaign for Hologrid: Monster Battle is underway. You have until June 7 to back the campaign, which has a goal of $100,000. If all goes well, the estimated delivery date for the game is later this year, in November.
Original article:
Tippett Studio and HappyGiant announced an original Augmented and Virtual Reailty (AR and VR) gaming concept called HoloGrid: Monster Battle. The new game will pit the monstrous creations of Phil Tippett against each other in a VR and AR battle experience for use on PC and mobile devices.
Tippett Studio isn't a game developer; it was founded in 1984 by animation pioneer Phil Tippett, a 2-time Academy Award winning Visual Effects Supervisor and Director best known for his work on the original Star Wars films (remember the Holo Chess creatures?), Jurassic Park, Robocop and many more.
To aid Tippett's goal of bringing his monsters to life in an AR/VR video game, HappyGiant has teamed up with Tippett Studio to create HoloGrid: Monster Battle. HappyGiant was founded by veterans of LucasArts, ILM, Hasbro and Pileated Pictures, and it develops video games for PCs, mobile, tablets and other emerging platforms. This will be the company's first AR/VR project.
HoloGrid: Monster Battle is a hybrid board game/trading card game (similar to Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering) that uses physical playing cards to trigger AR and VR creatures and abilities on a virtual gameboard, giving players the feeling that the battle is happening right in front of them. HappyGiant captures Tippett's creations using photogrammetry, which scans a real life model into digital 3D assets, giving them an incredible level of detail.
The team is "looking at all options" to get the game from AR/VR to actual reality, from publishing deals to crowdfunding. There's no official campaign in motion just yet, but the concept sounds exciting and games of this type are booming in popularity, so sourcing some capital to develop it may not be difficult. Just tell us where to throw our money. I've always wanted to play Holo Chess, and HoloGrid: Monster Battle has the potential to make Holo Chess look like kids play.
Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.
