One week ago, Legacy’s first ARKit game, Color BlastAR launched. HitPoint Studios, Legacy’s exclusive development partner for the past two years, is publishing the game for us. What have we learned so far?
First, a brief description of Color BlastAR. A combination of coloring and tag, kids splat paint on life-size virtual zombies before they steal your color. There is a story game mode and also a fast-action arcade mode. The game utilizes the unique world-sensing, computer vision ARKit technology in order to integrate motion and SLAM tracking directly into the gameplay while transforming the world with interactive creatures, virtual flowers, rocks, treasure chests and more.
Here’s the good news. We were able to get some nice press coverage, in Venturebeat and CNET, among others. Kudos to our awesome PR consultant, Elizabeth Olson!
But here’s the bad news. We have not been featured by Apple and as a result, Color BlastAR has only been downloaded 10,000 times. Given that we were one of the highest rated and most downloaded games on Tango devices, this is very disappointing. Clearly, an Apple feature is key to success at this early stage in the evolution of ARKit.
But we are indefatigable and have planned an awesome update on October 19. Here are some of the new features and content that is planned:
– Seasonal Halloween update including new icons, trailer, description and spooky Halloween environmental effects;
– “Paint My Dragon” story pack – a second storyline that adds 8 additional characters (IAP);
– Spooky Creature Pack, adds 10 new characters to the Arcade Mode including two brand new Halloween-themed creatures (IAP); and
– Dynamic shadows and maybe directional lighting to improve realism.
So stay tuned and, hopefully, we can turn 10,000 downloads into 100,000!