Augmented reality is building a bridge between video games and books, redefining both in the process.
Wonderbook thrust augmented books into the mainstream in 2012
The concept behind augmented reality books is simple: a physical book contains many elements that elude the human eye, only visible through the use of various apps, gadgets and other devices. Sony's PlayStation 3 "game" Wonderbook, for example, came with a stocky hardback, a camera, a "Move" control wand and a series of disks. Sitting in front of a TV with the book, the player could see themselves and their surroundings on screen. By waving the Move, interactive visuals and audio poured from the book and into living rooms across the world. Even JK Rowling was captivated, crafting the Harry Potter companion Book of Spells for Wonderbook with Sony.
In 2014, the trend continues
The French Connection is the first volume in the Jack Hunter series of children's stories to introduce interactive augmented reality – or AR – elements. Unlike Sony's effort, the book works alone as a readable novel. But with the help of an app and a smartphone, images on its pages unlock a portal through which readers can access a number of games and interactive stories.
The best examples don't stop at the corners of the pages
Despite a title sporting technology's most overused prefix, the non-fiction AR book iDinosaur (2013) allows kids with access to a tablet to bring the title's Jurassic subject matter to life in virtual form. What's more, they can take control and lead virtual tyrannosaurs around their living room, all viewed through the screen and camera or a tablet. Operating beyond the confines of a pure "game" as an attempt to interest the digital generation in print, iDinosaur does an impressive job.
AR books aren't just for gadget-rich youngsters
Even Penguin has tried its hand at AR books by releasing a string of classics, hiding virtual elements on their covers only visible through a smartphone running a specific app. Great Expectations and Moby-Dick both enjoyed such treatment, suggesting that in future the disconnect between books and covers may need to be written to include the concept of "virtual" covers.
No book or AR tech? No problem
Today a gaming form from the past, considered by many to be lost – text-based games – still thrives on mobile. Text adventures – games made entirely from words – continue to be a experimental playground for storytelling and, like their AR counterparts, blur the line between book and game.
Blackbar plays with censorship to lead readers on a guessing game through a series of letters, while Paradox Factor presents a science thriller that harks back to a time when the Fighting Fantasy series of game books offered eager readers entirely print-based adventures.
SIX OF THE BEST GAMING DOCUMENTARIES
1 Get Lamp (2010)
A Fascinatingexploration of text-only games and the culture around them, from their early-80s heyday to the present.Today mainstream games sell through spectacle, consumers are enticed through muscular visuals, vast worlds and cinematic action. Once, however, games built from nothing but text thrived. Get Lamp takes a look at those games and their relevance today. It is a low-fi doc prone to the sentimental, but takes the viewer on a journey through a world of gaming all too often forgotten now that Call of Duty and Angry Birds are household names.
2 King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
This melodramatic tale about the battle for the Donkey Kong world record delivers an almost pantomime drama set amid the glow of arcade cabinets.The team behind King of Kong were in the right place at the right time, following humble teacher Steve Wiebe and demonised oddity Billy Mitchell as they do battle over the Donkey Kong World record. Throughout the film, a captivating melodrama unfolds that is as likely to delight the non-gamer as the devoted arcade dweller. The documentary is something of a pantomime set under the glow of vintage arcade cabinets and its cast of eccentrics make sure it is consistently charming and surprising.
3 Indie Game The Movie (2012)
This look at small teams risking it all for their ideas delivers an affectionate depiction of what it is to craft games.A tale of two independent development teams risking it all to bring their creative visions to the world, Indie Game The Movie is superbly shot and thoughtfully edited. It certainly succeeds in translating the intricate process of games development, but its greatest strength is in capturing the emotions that building a game demand and the strain of the process on the human mind. Its real stars are the duo behind Super Meat Boy, who are happy to be on camera where they prove both hilarious and vulnerable.
4 Second Skin (2008)
Online realms are heralded as both new frontiers for identity and demonised for consuming their occupants. This film considers those that inhabit them. Multiplayer online games such as World of WarCraft and EverQuest II offer intriguing contrasts. To some, they are a liberating place to experiment with identity and break free fromeality. For others they are voids that engender addiction and wastefully consume the lives of their inhabitants. Second Skin ponders the experience of seven such residents, casting a lens over both the potential and pitfalls of a life devoted to online dominions, with absorbing results.
5 Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)
Hunting down the young gamers who starred in a 1982 Life magazine piece, this film brilliantly explores the golden age of the arcade.While King of Kong is a real-world drama about what it is to chase high scores, Chasing Ghosts looks at the lives of the people involved. It centres on the now middle-aged stars of a Life piece that gathered the world's best arcade players. Through reminiscences about their youth, a detailed picture is painted of the role games can play in an individual's life and what it is to carry that experience into adulthood.
6 Focus: A Documentary (2011)
Focus tells the story of one of the stars of the competitive world of beat 'em up gaming.There have been a number of documentaries aboutthis, but Focus is distinct in its concentration on one player, Mike Ross, and a year in his life. His experience near the top of the players that travel the world and court huge fan bases is interesting, but where Focus shines is in revealing the community as a bona fide youth subculture.
IN THE KITBAG
As the power of mobiles and tablets increases, a new wave of hardware designed for portable gaming is competing for attention. MadCatz, famed for its arcade sticks, is among the latest to offer such a product with the FREQ.M. Taking all that is common to a home gaming headset – earphones, a mic, robust build quality and equaliser presets for games – the FREQ.M shrinks everything to a portable, wireless form. The result is impressive, and should please both smartphone owners and developers that give mobile games an audio polish typically reserved for more powerful platforms. The FREQ.M also remains compatible with many home platforms, and includes wired functionality, perfect for long plane flights.
PIXEL PERFECT
Veteran Welsh games maker Jeff Minter is remarkably prolific, but to this day one of his most famous works is Tempest 2000; a remake of the 1981 arcade shooter Tempest. Now Minter has returned to the game again with TxK for PlayStation Vita. Like its predecessors, TxK is a tunnel shooter, which sees you guide an abstract vessel through a wireframe tube, dodging and shooting. Very fast and realised in slashes of neon that look splendid on the Vita's screen, TxK is a quality game, but from its pace to a musical score inspired by 90s UK breakbeat hardcore, it is a celebration of retro. Whether you've been plugging away at Tempest longer than Minter himself, or are a genre newcomer, TxK's 100 levels will thrill.
