What Are the Different Types of Augmented Reality Games?

There are a wide range of augmented reality games, which typically use real world objects to help populate a virtual landscape of some kind. Some of the most popular types of games to use this technology are card games that can be played with a device that allows the players to see creatures and other objects from cards animated in three-dimensions (3D). There are also games that use the environment around a person without other objects, such as ghost hunting simulators played in a person's house. Other types of augmented reality games include those in which a virtual landscape is created by different markers, which can then be interacted with in various ways.

Augmented reality games are played through a device that includes a camera and a display screen, such as a smart phone or a handheld gaming platform. The device is then used to capture video in real time of the environment around the player and different markers can be used to indicate the location for virtual elements that are overlaid onto the image on the screen. This allows for a wide range of different augmented reality games to be created that take advantage of this unusual mixture of real and digital assets.

Some augmented reality games are played using cards, typically collectible ones that include images and statistics about different creatures and items upon them. These cards are used by players to battle against each other, with the winning creature determining the victor in the game. When the cards are used for augmented reality games, however, the players can look at a screen to see the creatures on the cards brought to life through animated 3D models that come out of them. These different creatures can then attack each other, showing the results of the fight between them visually, instead of just through numbers representing attacks and defense.

There are also augmented reality games that use the environment around the player as the area in which the game is played. A smart phone can be used for a ghost hunting application, for example, in which the person scans the rooms of his or her house for ghosts. Digital images appear on the screen, showing these "ghosts" in the room with the player, which are then caught or otherwise interacted with through the game. Similar methods can be used for investigation games in which players look for digital creatures or items "hidden" as virtual assets in their own homes.

Other augmented reality games use a series of marker images to show where the digital assets should appear. Sheets of paper with different graphics can be placed together, scanned with the camera, and used to display digital assets on the screen such as the buildings of a city. Different markers can be used together to create various environments that are animated. The player then interacts with these stages and creatures within them by using additional markers, which can represent weapons or other items that impact the game world.