Google opens up Maps API for game developers
Back in the day, you would have played Rockstar's GTA 5 or more recently, caught up with the Pokemon Go fever. But GTA graphics were not well-defined and the AR-based Pokemon Go was taking you to 'weird' or 'unsafe' locations. Well, everything changes from here as Google is opening up its Maps API for game developers to create the future of AR games.
What does it mean?
With its Maps API and ARCore, Google is allowing game developers to easily create real-world games. Developers who sign up will gain access to real-time Google Maps data including "100 million 3D buildings" through Unity SDK, the world's most popular game engine. Also, Google is introducing a new API that will allow developers to create gameplay experiences around real-world locations (Imagine GTA 5 now).
Google has opened the floodgates to the next-gen AR games
Together with the Unity SDK and Google's new API, developers can turn real-life buildings and roads into sci-fi landscapes, allowing them to build new world with Maps data serving as a base. The new API will also help to add points of interest and locations to safely guide users in the real-world and ensure that players are not sent to remote or dangerous locations.
The first wave of new AR games is coming soon
While Google has now made public its Maps API, it has been working with three partner developers to showcase the future of AR games with titles like The Walking Dead: Our world, Jurassic World Alive and Ghostbusters World. All the three games resemble Pokemon Go, with the developers weaving Augmented Reality and location-based game-play to bring fictional world into the real world.
