December 19, 2009

What if Pac Man was an alternative reality game?

With a compass, streaming camera and GPS, we’re bound to see more alternative reality apps coming to handheld devices. Some apps, like Yelp, overlay data on the interface. This is both helpful and cool. Now, I’m waiting for the legions of developers to build games based on this technology hat-trick.

I’m not a gamer or game developer. My button-mashing skills are stuck in a NES time warp. So I thought, what if one of the classics was recast for today’s devices? My target is Pac Man.

The concept

This idea is rooted in the labyrinth of cities. Alleys and streets become the corridors. The players race through a neighborhood, collecting pellets and devouring their competitors. It’s a race-meets-scavenger hunt.

Gameplay

Using a map overlay of a city street, the game master draws the corridors with her finger. Doing so places pellets throughout the maze. After she’s done, she pushes an invitation to other players who also have the app and are ready to play. Each accepts the invite and goes to their assigned starting point. Once everyone has checked in, the game begins.

Each person is their own Pac Man and their competitors are seen as ghosts: Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde and so on. As they race through the streets, they accumulate points by passing though pellets that are simply GPS placemarks. If they run through a power pellet, they can tag another person for bonus points.

The interface would be sparse, simply overlaying game data on the streaming camera. The user would see the pellets in their field of vision. In the periphery, cues would show the rough direction of other players. An info bar would show their current score and any additional notices. For example, the mockup shows the user’s bar in a warning state that indicates his “power up” status is about to end.

Extensions

As game maps are created, they are posted to a public Web site. Through the site or the app itself, other users can browse these maps and copy them for future play. Game masters can accumulate points for creating maps that are most played. Users accumulate points over the course of multiple play sessions. Of course, a leaderboard showcases the top players.

Conclusion

While this is just a simple idea (conceived and rendered in about two hours), hopefully it provides some insight into what’s possible today with the latest generation of handhelds.