Battle Mythical Creatures In This Life-Size AR Arena

ARcade Sports launches with three multiplayer augmented reality games that get you up and moving.

Since the pandemic, shopping malls and movie theaters have been looking for new ways to attract customers. Some locations have begun offering interactive gaming experiences as an additional incentive for shoppers and moviegoers looking.

This includes the Portuguese movie theater NOS, which recently partnered with ONTOP Studios to bring the company’s life-size AR gaming experience ARcade Sports to its theater.

The arena is big enough for teams of two to four people to physically run, dodge, and squat as they team battle mythical monsters, collect treasure, and compete for real prizes. Some players may even find themselves featured on a nationwide video stream for people around the world to watch.

Jumping into the game is easy. Simply download the ARcade Sports app and step into the arena with your smartphone in hand. Each arena is designed to be a magic portal into a fantastical world where you and your team can summon and challenge mythical monsters. According to the company, each game lasts roughly three to five minutes on average.

Currently, ARcade Sports offers three games: 

• Dungeon Masters: The evil queen from Avalon. Players engage in combat against a wizard that fought King Arthur (Difficulty: Easy).
• Tiki King: Prove your bravery to the hawaiian gods, Ku, Lono, Kane and Kanaloa (Difficulty: Medium).
• Janus: The machine that wants to reset the past. A team of heroes is needed to stop an A.I. that wants to remove humankind from the history books (Difficulty: Hard).

Each experience involves using your smartphone to target the weak spots of monsters. Every time a monster is defeated, a treasure is released. This game becomes more competitive as players try to collect the items as fast as they can. 

In an interview with VRScout, Nuno Folhadela, CEO of ONTOP, talked about what he thought was most exciting about ARcade Sports, saying, “Being available to everyone! ARcade Sports started as a brand activation and AR multiplayer showcase at events and quickly we noticed that it has the mechanics to be much more.”

Foldadela adds, “With the premiere at movie theaters and being available every day, it allows more people to try and at the same time, grow a community, where various players come back with new friends to play again and be better at it. It’s magical and quite exciting to see teams battling for the first place on the leaderboard every month.”

As if that weren’t enough, ONTOP is already working on more offerings. Folhadela tells me that the fourth and fifth ARcade Sports games are currently in development. The former is more family-oriented.

“We noticed that families enjoy the experience immensely since parents and their kids can play together. We have a funny story: a father became quite emotional after playing ARcade Sports with his two kids since when he plays Minecraft or Fortnite, he is only sitting next to them, “doing nothing”, while with ARcade Sports he felt that they achieve something together. The fifth game will push some AR features, by adding object occlusion/detection and being available for 6 Players.”

In addition to entertainment, ARcade Sports offers several fitness benefits. The platform collects data about your walking speed as well as the number of squats you perform, which it then displays at the end of each session.

“Players love the fact that they burn calories without taking notice of it. I can easily see players demanding AR fitness features or choosing outside game experiences that give a higher purpose, than just running on a treadmill or just counting pushups,” said Folhadela.

Folhadela then shared a teaser prototype made especially for VRScout.

With the start of 2023, ARcade Sports will begin to expand internationally. According to the company, 52% of their existing player-base return for a second game with another 20% returning for a third. By introducing new features and games, ONTOP hopes to increase these numbers over time.

For ONTOP Studios, ARcade Sports is about creating a totally new lifestyle, where a multitude of experiences can be layered over the real world, inviting families and groups of friends to enjoy their surroundings in countless adventures. 

“ARcade Sports brings people together in a fast and innovative AR setup that rewards everyone with meaningful experiences. We are creating a community. It’s social, it encourages physical activity and there are great prizes to be conquered, incentivizing the returning to the locations.” 

You can learn more about ONTOP Studios and ARcade Sports by clicking here.

Image Credit: ONTOP Studios

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