Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A screenshot of Ingress' official website
A game world can be additionaly supported by other types of media, being much lar-
ger than a simple virtual map on the screen. For instance, some portion of narrative
can be provided to players via special topics, fake piece of advetising, fake articles,
and websites which were created by game developers. Because of such element,
the game's pervasion in real world is much wider and deeper. The games with such
components are known as alternate-reality games.
A notable example is a game that can be considered a world-phenomena—
Ingress
,
created by
Niantic Labs
(
http://www.ingress.com/
). Originally, it was Android exclus-
ive, but there are some plans to port it onto iOS as well. Players have to interact with
so-called portals attached to public places, which can be built, hacked, upgraded
via special mods, attacked, defended, and so on. There are two factions—the en-
lightened and the resistance—that fight for those portals, since there is a balance of
