culture hacker

Layar, the augmented reality browser that has been creeping up on Android phone users since May, hit the iPhone App Store last month. And yet, the Layar web site lists a big fat goose egg under the heading “Games.” I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Surely, someone out there has to be looking into Layar as a way to expand an ARG experience. While not as ubiquitous as phone or email, Layar is free to Android and iPhone users. The API is straightforward, and getting signed up to develop content for the system is as easy as submitting a good idea.

In its basic form, Layar uses GPS data to create a map over your camera view of the real world, with markers denoting points of interest, which can in turn be used to deliver content through the web. On Tuesday, Layar rolled out a host of new features for Android users, including the ability to view 3D text and other objects on points of interest, and will be adding 3D animation and audio soon. This particularly attractive video shows just how involved the immersion can get with these new updates.

Layar has been a great concept, in terms of starting me thinking about game design ideas. What better way to create a physically distributed experience than to drop virtual geocaches in every Android and iPhone market worldwide? When I imagine what we could have done with the Chasing the Wish universe in particular, given a platform that can literally show you another world layered over this one, I get chills.

Here are ten basic immersive story concepts, from my little black book of Layar ideas.

1. Virtual Dead Drop
Everyone wants to incorporate geocaches into their game, but there’s only so far you can feasibly go to hide a tupperware container. The newest version of Layar, which was released Tuesday, natively supports “geofenced” points of interest – ones that, like a physical cache, only become visible and can only be interfaced with when the user is physically in range. You can have players retrieve virtual items from virtual caches, and even deliver them to other caches, without ever actually sending a game developer to the site.

2. Breadcrumbs
A rogue agent (escaped shadow government test subject, news reporter in too deep – you decide) is on the run from the Bad Guys, and is leaving a trail for truth seekers like you to follow. Visit the places he has, to see what he has seen.

3. Alien Landing Sites
A Phenomenon is building around the world – aliens are landing! And they’re about to touch down in your city! Choose to help the otherworldly visitors on your block, or destroy them.

4. Alternate History View
Well, you’ve done it. You sent a man back in time. And now the whole of history is coming untangled, getting turned completely upside down. View the damage through this layer.

5. Reality Defense
One of the handy things that Layar developers have cooked up is a method for allowing users to drop points of interest themselves. Have players drop “defender drones” in their area to protect their city against dark forces. Give the playerbase a map on the main game site, showing where drones have been dropped, and where they are needed to repel the invaders.

6. Ghost Clones
Another POI-dropping concept – players need to create “ghost clones” of themselves in several different areas to unlock a piece of content. (Anyone remember the Elegy of Emptiness from Majora’s Mask? This is basically the same idea, without the creepy dolls.)

7. Jumpers
Like the Breadcrumbs concept and the Alien Landing concept mixed together. A character has discovered the ability to supernaturally teleport across the globe (for reasons of playability, let’s say he will randomly jump every day.) Every “landing site” spawns POIs that progress the story.

8. Alternadude
One character exists in a hundred different realities. With our timeline tracing technology, we’ve managed to lock on to him, and follow him through the choices that scattered him to all corners of a hundred different Earths.

9. Satellite Reception
We don’t know why, but the alien signals have been pointed at exact locations on Earth. We need field people to retrieve the data.

10. Rabbitholes
With the addition of geofencing, its possible to create a single layer with tons of content that is unavailable until the player reaches a starting point. In other words, you could go to a certain place and “fall into” a specific adventure, invisible to Layar users who haven’t entered the game yet.

Of course, these are all very simple ideas. A robust Layar-enhanced game would incorporate several of these to create a deep and varied experience. With the expansion to the iPhone and more U.S. devices being released for Layar’s native Android system, it’s inevitable that someone will use this technology in an ARG. The only questions are who – and when?