Augmented Reality Game Development

Create your own augmented reality games from scratch with Unity 5

The heyday of location-based augmented reality games is upon us. They have been around for a few years, but the release of Pokémon Go was a gamechanger that catalyzed the market and led to a massive surge in demand. Now is the time for novice and experienced developers alike to turn their good ideas into augmented reality (AR) mobile games and meet this demand!

If you are keen to develop virtual reality games with the latest Unity 5 toolkit, then this is the book for you. The genre of location-based AR games introduces a new platform and technical challenges, but this book will help simplify those challenges and show how to maximize your game audience.

This book will take you on a journey through building a location-based AR game that addresses the core technical concepts: GIS fundamentals, mobile device GPS, mapping, map textures in Unity, mobile device camera, camera textures in Unity, accessing location-based services, and other useful Unity tips. The technical material also discusses what is necessary for further development to create a multiplayer version of the game. At the end, you will be presented with troubleshooting techniques in case you get into trouble and need a little help.

What You Will Learn

• Build a location-based augmented reality game called Foodie Go
• Animate a player’s avatar on a map
• Use the mobile device’s camera as a game background
• Implement database persistence with SQLLite4Unity3D to carry inventory items across game sessions
• Create basic UI elements for the game, inventory, menu, and settings
• Perform location and content searches against the Google Places API
• Enhance the game’s mood by adding visual shader effects
• Extend the game by adding multiplayer networking and other enhancements