TomorrowChase is an AR game concept inspired by Disney’s Tomorrowland. Instead of a select few entering a hidden reality where they build the future, the future comes to us through AR. Collect “future fragments” to build virtual cities, become a futurist yourself by creating blueprints to share with the community, and – enjoy the view!
The idea
This is an ambitious game concept on the cutting edge of Augmented Reality technology. The aim is to overlay as many futuristic (but not unfeasible) objects onto real-world locations as current AR tech (and imagination!) allows. And as the user base grows, players themselves will start contributing futuristic concepts: vehicle designs, architecture, fashion, sustainable energy solutions, etc. – to represent things that could have been (or may still materialise, with enough ingenuity and innovation on our part).
Game structure
TomorrowChase (BTW, the name is tentative – please feel free to pick something different) would be made up of two components: an app running on a smartphone or a dedicated AR device, and a PC game. Optionally, there may be a third component: full VR – more on that later.
High-level gameplay description
Imagine this:
You walk around the city IRL, and naturally see flying cars, robots, futuristic architecture, vertical gardens, and people riding strange contraptions.
In the countryside, you might see a sky filled with aerobatic gliders, farmland with robots tending to exotic crops, and forests with giant bioengineered trees.
All these AR objects, or “future fragments” can be “scanned” and stored so they can be accessed later.
Future fragments would have very detailed “lore”, almost like technical design documentation – the idea is that they are futuristic yet not inconceivable at current tech level. This way, people will be encouraged to dream, but also be tempted to actually make these things real. So, it’s not just a game, but also a dream generator and a catalyst for technological progress!
Back at home, players will be able to use the future fragments they have collected to build their own virtual city. These will be persistent and publishable, so that other players can visit them. As a bonus, there can be a full-VR “presentation” or “immersion” mode, so that visitors can better experience these virtual locations.
Importantly, players will have a way to design their own future fragments and upload them for discussion, voting, and possible integration into the game for everyone to enjoy (this functionality would help source ideas from community, at scale). This would require an advanced editor, but there’s nothing supernatural in that – players can be given some of the same tools that game devs use, and shortlisted designs will get help from the dev team to make them publishable (after all, this works for LEGO Ideas, and they deal with physical products). TomorrowChase could become a crowdsourced innovation and design workshop, a place for creative talent to practise their skills, offering valuable market insights for companies.
Game mechanics
Things will have to be ironed out during development, but there will likely be collecting (hello Pokémon GO), building (like base-building in No Man’s Sky), creating your own blueprints for future fragments and exchanging/trading them with other players, and missions (quests initiated by interacting with AR objects or NPCs). It would also be very community-oriented.
Challenges
- The sheer scale. This is a massive project, and it will only work well if done well, there’s low tolerance for compromises.
- Technological requirements. The game is best played on a dedicated AR device, which are still not mainstream. (But when they do become mainstream, it may be too late – the market will be saturated with AAA and indie games).
Why?
This is a very ambitious project (as you have probably realised). This is by design. The AR/VR tech is just at the level of maturity where we need to try something cool. Big industry players (like Meta) should create something that makes their new AR/VR devices attractive to mainstream consumer – and this could be it!
Submitted by: Ilia Leikin
Hashtags: #AR #Futurism #Gaming #VR
Looking for: a company to take on the project
I can: brainstorm, help collecting futuristic ideas
Status: newly submitted
Players could have “wearable AR assets”. E.g. you could create funky clothing for yourself, and other players will see it when you’re walking on the street. And you could “mod” you car in AR, too!
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