WALC-MAN

AN AUGMENTED REALITY VIDEO GAME for  Apple Watch / iPhone

WHAT THIS COULD BE

• Porting the idea of Pac-Man over Google Maps and combining it with augmented reality to make a larger than life video game
• A highly lucrative and innovative way to do walking tours of Manhattan
• A way to encourage physical fitness through gamifying the act of walking around Manhattan
• A next level immersive mobile game experience

HOW THIS COULD WORK

• We use google maps of Manhattan as Pac-Man-style mazes, with collectible power pellets scattered throughout
• GPS tracks users as they walk through the streets/mazes
• Augmented reality engine creates graphic overlay over camera feed of streets to correspond to maze.
• Augmented reality and haptic clues (vibrations) tell players when they have captured pellets
• You have to walk? This might be a way to cut down on accidents people might have trying to play the game while looking at the screen, and lower the cost of entry for players.
• We could sell it (initially) as a walking tour of Manhattan-type thing, where you can travel every street of the city in a race against friends, but then it could easily morph into something that can be played anywhere mapped by google
• Perhaps there's virtual ghosts chasing you as well? That would be fresh if we could make that happen...

HAS ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEEN DONE BEFORE?

Kind of? Not really?

• There was this augmented reality Pac-Man game done in Singapore in 2004. It didn't seem to go anywhere.
• There's an augmented reality game called MYNZ coming out for Apple Watch that claims to be the first augmented reality game for the apple watch, but it doesn't seem to be like what we're talking about exactly. It's more about setting mines for your competitors and trying not to step on mines they've set out for you.
• Many augmented reality applewatch links are about an augmented reality program that let you see what your wrist would look like with an apple watch. It has since been shut down.
• Google did a "PacMan-ify Google Maps" overlay thing this year for April Fool's Day, apparently...