Game Art: Meleap's Hado (2015-)

Hado is both an augmented reality game and a virtual reality game developed by Japanese startup Meleap that transforms the mystical, new age concept of hado (a free-form energy, popularized by Masaru Emoto) into a game that evokes Dragonball-like fireball shots and Street Fighter combat. The equipment needed is conspicuous. Players wear a) a smartwatch, b) a head-mounted display and c) use a smartphone attached to the goggles. Interestingly, the HMD display works like Google Glass as it lets users see their environment with digital elements projected onto the camera feed. If it sounds convoluted, it is, but that's the (virtual) reality some now live in. On a purely aesthetic level, the result is oddly fascinating and weirdly psychedelic: playing Hado looks like dancing. As it happened with Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation Move, I think that hacking the system could produce much more interesting experiences than an expensive, high-tech game of tag.

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Meleap (v

ia Bruce Sterling)

Game Art: Meleap's Hado (2015-)

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