One of the most iconic scenes in all of sci-fi is when R2-D2 challenges Chewbacca to a game of holographic chess in the original Star Wars. Today, Phil Tippett has announced his intention to bring that scene to life with a new game using AR technology.
Titled HoloGrid: Monster Battle, the final product will be a collectable card game with physical cards which bring Tippett Studio-created creatures to life on an AR playing field. The monsters will be made using a technology called photogrammetry, which is essentially inverted 3D printing. Tippett will create monsters out of traditional, physical materials which will then be scanned into the game. While the game’s being designed specifically for AR and VR headsets, it will also be coming to mobile devices and standard PCs.
While it’s certainly cool to see the guy who planted the seed of holochess in our minds attempt to finally bring it to life in a game, let’s not forget that the AR monster-battling genre has seen many previous failed attempts. (Notably, Sony’s Eye of Judgement.) Happy Giant, the game’s developer, is primarily known for small-scale mobile titles, and the wording in their press release makes it sound like the project is not yet funded.
Despite that, hey–that whole holochess idea is still really cool and I still really want to see it done right. I hope HoloGrid can be the one to do it.
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