Making the Next ‘Space Invaders’ with Google’s AR Technology
The iconic arcade game ‘Space Invaders’ turned 45 this year, so to celebrate this milestone, the developer TAITO teamed up with Google and global production and innovation studio UNIT9 to bring the 8-bit battle to the real world.
Using Google’s new ARCore technology, ‘Space Invaders: World Defence’ sees the return of those familiar invaders, but now in 3D, and interacting with your local environment. Now players can shoot for high scores on their mobile devices, while aliens appear from behind buildings - as well as soaring above the area in their own UFO with the ‘Invaders Dimension’ mode that gives their AR phone-arm a much needed rest.
To discuss how this new iteration of a gaming institution was brought to life and what the future of AR and gaming in advertising looks like, LBB’s Ben Conway spoke with UNIT9’s head of game development, Andrew Oaten, and creative director, Jakub Jakubowski.
LBB> How did this project come about? What excited you about bringing an iconic game to life in AR?
Andrew> Earlier this year, UNIT9 was selected to support Google and TAITO’s partnership in celebrating Space Invaders’ 45th anniversary by creating a game that leveraged Google’s latest ARCore technology - Geospatial API, Streetscape Geometry API, and Geospatial Creator. We then went to TAITO’s headquarters in Shinjuku, Japan with Google and TAITO, to discuss how we could bring Space Invaders into the real world by utilising the different Google AR technologies.
Jakub> Space Invaders has been an iconic pillar of gaming since the late ‘70s, and the core gameplay model has not changed significantly since then. Due to the simple brilliance of the original game design, we aimed to stay true to its classic mechanics but reimagine the possibilities of gameplay with augmented reality (AR).
The most exciting part of the project was that we were the ones able to help with this transition into AR. We took a game that we all grew up with - an icon of retro gaming and one of the founding pieces of an entire culture - and envisioned a new approach to gameplay with the latest tech available.
During our workshop in Tokyo, the reality of this endeavour hit me. I asked the team, ‘Are we making the next Space Invaders?’ and the answer was ‘Yes, we are’. A magical moment, particularly for me personally, as it was one of the titles that actually inspired me to follow my career path as a gaming director.
LBB> 45 years later and Space Invaders still has a significant cultural impact - what is it that makes the game so continually relevant and popular?
Jakub> Its iconic status as one of the first arcade games makes Space Invaders eternally popular. It's a title that helped to shape the first generation of gamers. Pixel art is a genre of its own, and a timeless one at that. It's 2023, where technological advancements allow us to render graphics barely distinguishable from reality - and pixel art content is still booming. Space Invaders was there right at the very beginning.
Even today, the gameplay holds up. Minimalistic and simple at first glance, with strategic depth to be discovered. ‘Easy to play, hard to master’ - a credo that many games live by describes Space Invaders in a nutshell.
Andrew> I think you can boil it down to its look and its gameplay, both of which were developed at a time when you had limited resources to play with. Colours? Two. Resolution? Around 256 x 224. This meant they needed to really focus and develop a look and feel that was fun to look at, but also to play. The result? A game that to this day is minimalistic, fun to play and iconic.
LBB> Working with such a beloved and legendary IP, were there any guidelines or restrictions as to how the alien designs and other aspects of the game were to be presented?
Andrew> The guidelines for the Invaders had to be adhered to and replicated in its 3D format as well as in animation. We respected those guidelines and made sure we were accurate to the pixel - literally.
Jakub> What was awesome was that we got a green light to design new textures for the Invaders. While the shapes remained intact, our design team pushed forward with different patterns and colour combinations which led to some really cool (and never seen before) output, giving this new version of the game something different.
LBB> How did the project evolve from the brief to its final rendition? What ideas had to be dropped and what new possibilities did you execute as they appeared?
Jakub> One early idea was for it to be an AR action game, mixed in with a rendition of the classic game. But with the introduction of localisation features and going all-in on Geospatial, it evolved into a much more advanced game with unique level generation algorithms and lots of procedural content involved. Of course, we had to stick to deadlines - but if we ever work on future iterations, I’d love to explore the idea of localised leaderboards and pushing the procedural elements of the level generation even further.
Andrew> We originally had plans to use the user's environment as the buildings that the Invaders attacked, similar to the original game, and the four shelters between the player and the Invaders. But instead, we moved towards a ‘fly through the city’ approach to gameplay which allowed us to dynamically show off more of the surroundings rather than keeping players in a static position.
LBB> Tell us about the ARCore Geospatial API - what is it, and why is it the key that brings this concept to life?
Andrew> Geospatial API enables you to attach content remotely to any area mapped by Google Street View and create richer and more robust immersive experiences linked to real-world locations on a global scale.
The game uses mesh data from the Streetscape Geometry API to algorithmically make playing the game in different locations a unique experience. Every real-world location has its own topography and city layout, affecting the gameplay in its own unique way.
In the game, the Invaders can spawn from buildings, so we constructed test cases using building geometry obtained from different parts of the world. This ensured that the game would perform optimally in diverse environments, from local villages to bustling cities.
We also learned from Google that it can be tiring for users to keep holding their hands up for a prolonged period of time for an AR experience. This knowledge influenced our gameplay development - we created on-screen gameplay [the Invaders Dimension] to give players a chance to relax their phone arm and improve user comfort.
That transition moment really shows you the power of the Geospatial API and the transition between real-world AR and virtually generated, 3D dimensions.
LBB> What is the future of AR in gaming? What possibilities does it unlock?
Jakub> AR is slowly becoming an inseparable part of ‘real’ life, and geospatial is one of the most fundamental components of the technology that will provide a foundation for creators. It makes the ‘reality’ in AR so much more real. The Geospatial API literally makes the world a canvas for creators, providing them with limitless space to play with digital content that becomes an integral part of the surrounding.
Andrew> Before the Geospatial API came out, you needed to rely on image processing, or a depth camera to understand the world around you. This, however, comes with limitations, as not every device supports depth - and even then, there is a restriction to the distance it can process. Now, any phone with a camera that supports ARCore can understand the environment. You could paint the walls of the buildings up close, or up to a hundred metres away from you. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
LBB> What’s a moment from production that sticks out as the most fulfilling moment of the project?
Jakub> Testing the first complete flow of the game. Still buggy, but when I went out of the office to play it on the street and saw the giant Invaders pop out of my building - that was just awesome. It became even more exciting when the Invader Dimension morphed the entire street into a different world and the ship took off, flying over the buildings in my district.
LBB> Equally, what was the hardest challenge you faced on this project and how did you overcome it?
Andrew> Pathfinding. Like many other apps, when the user starts the game, we prompt them with a location permission request. Once they allow location permissions, we’re able to determine their location and begin to leverage the features of Geospatial API for the game. From there, we needed to understand their context in terms of navigation: Where are the roads? Where can we traverse? It’s not a new challenge in itself, but we needed to be able to generate and process this data fast, using methods that are supported on higher and lower end devices. The solution was to take a birds eye view, and render a heightmap of the area from above. With this data, we knew where the buildings were and could generate paths around and over them.
LBB> What’s next in the world of AR gaming and advertising? Are there any new opportunities or technologies on the horizon that excite you?
Jakub> Facilitating ultimate convenience is an important shift that’s needed [in AR]. A significant barrier to the mass adoption of any technology is convenience - until it's easy and fun to use, it won’t be widely adopted. AR right now still carries a certain level of fatigue - there is a limit on how long you can play before your arm gets tired. Once this factor has been eliminated and user experience improved, I expect AR tech to become an integral part of everyday life of humanity - and that’s when both AR gaming and advertising will explode.
Andrew> I’m excited to see how much further Google can push the medium. Google has added the ARCore Scene Semantics API, a feature we didn’t use, but would allow users to understand in more detail what their camera is seeing. This could provide the creative opportunity to add more contextual gameplay - interactions with people in the camera view and much more.
Jakub> In a broader sense, AI is big on the horizon for gaming and advertising. Machine learning technology is bound to become a staple tool for any creator, supplementing the creative and development processes nearly every step of the way.
