Bringing real life adventure to mobile with augmented reality game Swords

• Swords is an AR title that encourages players to explore the real world in search of treasures
• “The idea was that we could make a full-on RPG adventure for people and have them see the world in a new way. I wanted to blend fantasy and reality”

Augmented reality allows the real world to blend with the digital world, and the mobile platform works as the perfect device to bring the two together. Mobile games such as Pokémon Go and Monster Hunter Now have both used AR capabilities to bring gamers outside and seek adventure. 

Future House Studios, founded by Adam Sidwell, has been crafting a mobile AR game, Swords, since 2015. This quest-driven RPG aims to be an immersive experience where players can embark on quests, battle monsters, and even hunt for real-world treasures.

The game's beta version was launched on June 15th, and a summer quest is underway, with a whopping $5,000 hidden in the wilderness for players to discover.

To find out more about the creation of Future House Studios, the initial concept behind Swords, and its development process, we caught up with founder and CEO Adam Sidwell, who shared what to expect from Swords' future. 

PocketGamer.biz: First, can you tell us a little about yourself and Future House?

Adam Sidwell: I’ve been in the video game and VFX industries for a couple of decades now. I’m really a storyteller at heart, and these are mediums that let people live their stories. 

I like to delve into every aspect of technology, whether it’s real-time game engines or linear content for TV and film. It’s the creative tech that excites me.

My first job while still in college was building models: props, vehicles, and characters for Microsoft games. My first real career job after that was working on I, Robot for Digital Domain. Then, it was on to making blockbuster movies at Weta, ILM, and other studios, eventually getting into VR and game development.

I founded Future House Studios on the same ideas:

• Dive right into emerging tech.

• Don’t be afraid of doing both games and linear content.

• Use those tools to tell stories.

You have a diverse background across multiple mediums. Where does gaming come into that? And what is the appeal of creating a game on mobile?

Gaming is a culmination of all the skills you learn in computer graphics. To make something move and interact requires an understanding of the art, but also a solid understanding of what is fun for people. Each interaction should build the story. Each game mechanic should contribute to the fun. You’re putting on a show for the player, so it’s much more like you’re participating in a conversation.

We’re building Swords on mobile because you need to have the game in your pocket as you walk around the real world. Swords is a walkabout AR game requiring you to explore new locations and discover treasure. We’re hiding real treasure caches all over!

When and how did the idea for Swords come about and how long has it been in development?

I’ve been working on the idea ever since I saw my first AR demo in early 2015. I was fascinated by the idea of putting VFX from movies into the real world. Let’s make monsters in our backyards!

The idea was that we could make a full-on RPG adventure for people and have them see the world in a new way. I wanted to blend fantasy and reality. 

When I first described the idea to people, they said: 'You mean like Pokemon Go?'. But PGO hadn’t launched yet. It wouldn’t for another several months. I hadn’t heard of it, and so naturally, I was curious. 

Right now, we’re still in beta. We haven’t even done the art pass yet. It’s mostly grey box and content downloaded from Unity. We are focusing on gameplay first and foremost. It’s got to feel right.

Can you tell us a little about how exactly the game will work by blending mobile game features with the idea of real-world treasure hunting?

Swords is different. We are blending long-form campaigns and quest progression into an augmented reality mobile app, but with a critical innovation: players will really need to explore to experience progression.

When you complete quests, you’ll be granted owls that will lead you to locations where we’ve hidden real treasure. You’ll use your phone as a tracker to get there, then you’ll have to find where it’s hidden. You’ll need to put your phone down to engage with your environment and that puts you as a player into a different headspace. 

We’re building out our network of hidden caches, some of which will be user-generated. Players will be rewarded for making their own drops for others to find.

There’s an incredible sense of connection when you discover something that someone else has left for you because you know they’ve been there and they’re a player just like you.

So overall, it will make the world of the game feel like it lives in our world.

Have there been any major challenges during development? If so, what were they and how did the team overcome these challenges?

When you’re an external development studio, you spend a lot of time building games for others. The team is always getting pulled onto client projects! That’s good for the studio, but it's bad for the game because it slows things down. 

The biggest challenge is discovering how players want to play and how they actually play. Since it’s an AR walkabout game, it’s pretty tough to know how people are using it without following them around all day.

Testing is different when it’s a console game, and you sit a player down in a chair, and they play for two hours.

With Swords, you play for a few minutes, travel to a new location, then explore the block. You’re really living life, and the game is integrated into that. We’re asking people to go places and want to make that exploration a life-enhancing experience. 

One player told us how he tracked down a treasure to an old wooden bridge in the middle of a forest near an aviary. He said the shining sun and calling birds made for a peaceful moment. Mother Nature is the best level designer. So designing the game and building it to give people those surprise moments and making that work at scale is the challenge.

We had to design Swords to work with people’s everyday lives - when can they go out walking and how far? How can we put a surprise around every corner? How can we get players to see that their world is filled with monsters and treasure?

Swords is designed to enhance the mystery and awe of players’ daily lives.

Are there any particular insights you are trying to learn from the game's beta tests?

Player behaviour as far as how far people are willing to venture. From other walkabout games, you can see that people are willing to walk dozens, even hundreds of miles over the months.

I’m interested to see how far people are willing to explore. There’s such an intrinsic reward to discovering something new in the real world. We are building those 'aha' moments into Swords.

Do you have a date in mind for launch?

I would love to launch sometime in the fall, but I won’t commit to that until we get more user stories from the players this summer.

There’s also this weird quirk of AR games: you want to launch in the summer when people want to be outside. It’s less fun to brave a snowstorm to find a secret sword. But maybe players will prove me wrong.

Finally, is there anything else you can tell us about the game or its long-term goal? Do you intend for the game to be continuously updated?

Absolutely. We are planning new campaigns every year. Each campaign will last a few months. Then, a new story, with new challenges, monsters, and quests, will drop.

There will also be an opportunity to collect new and unique swords with each campaign. As time goes on, each player’s avatar will look unique because they’ve customised it as they’ve explored different parts of the world. 

Summer 2024 is our biggest campaign yet. And we’ve got some incredible things planned.

Want to learn more about mixed reality? Head to the Big Screen Gaming Summit in Helsinki on October 1st and 2nd, which takes place alongside Pocket Gamer Connects.