Madurai :
Augmented reality games may be in their nascent stage in tier-I cities like Chennai. But, that hasn’t deterred the passion of this Madurai-based game developer, who has come up with trial version of an augmented reality game titled ‘Zombies Table.’ The demo game, which was released 20 days back in Apple Store and Google Play, has already started gaining attention among online users.
In fact, the game, which is the brain child of T S Gokul Prasath, 29, from Anna Nagar in Madurai, has already become one of the top rated augmented reality games with more than 5,000 downloads in Apple Store and Google Play.
Unlike other games, augmented reality games engage the player with the objects in real life. It has been an emerging area where lots of research and developments have been taking place. While the demo game has got instant acceptance, the Madurai youth vows to bring out the full version of ‘Table Zombie’ in the next 30 days.
Gokul completed his engineering in a city college and later pursued his MBA in International Business from a reputed college in Coimbatore. Though he was interested in application and game development from his under graduation days, he could not pursue it then. After his MBA, he got placed well-reputed companies. But his urge to become a game developer never subsided. He quit his job and started developing applications before he stared his own developing unit named SRG United Solutions in the city.
Briefing about the game, Gokul says, “The game can be downloaded at free of cost and played in smart phone or tablet. We have also linked the game with a PDF document. Once the print out is scanned through the camera after launching the application, the characters would come alive and people can play it. The demo version of the Table Zombie has been rated among the top three games in augmented reality field. There has been articles and positive feedback by users too.”
When contacted R Sivarajah, the former president of Software Industries Development Association of South Tamil Nadu (SIDA) and founder of Nativelead, an organisation to develop entrepreneurship skills of students, he said there are not many companies developing augmented reality games even in tier one cities. “It is in a nascent stage in South India,” he said.
According to this young game developer, augmented reality game is the future of all games. “In fact, that time is not too far when movie wall posters would start playing the entire trailer. Google glass could be connected to this application. This would enable us to watch the trailers through posters, which would be designed using augmented reality technique,” Gokul added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by V. Devanathan, TNN / March 19th, 2014