Even if you don’t have young children, who can get virtual glasses from you, there is no way you cannot notice that the game startups are innovating with incredible speed. Do you remember those times, when Half-Life was a real pinnacle of graphics and gameplay? The interactive environment, where you can remove and take objects to your hands was really impressive. Today, the capabilities of gaming technologies go so much further that we couldn’t predict anything like in our boldest childhood fantasies.
Just in a couple of years, hundreds of innovative gaming technologies have been raised. Of course, the most prominent one is VR gaming, a technology that transfers you to the game environment (or transfers this environment to you). Also, augmented reality games have become a real buzz in recent times. Do you remember the hype around Pokemon Go, a game that allowed you to interact with cartoon characters, who appear right in front of you when you are somewhere in the park or a supermarket?
Indeed, digital and real become indivisible and flow into one another freely, showing that there is no significant difference between them for our brains. Well, let’s put philosophy aside and talk about something more practical. Did you know that the authors of the most innovative technologies are gaming startups?
Everyone can start a game studio
Following the example of these successful companies, almost every person can start a game studio today. The main question you have to answer here is whether you want to start a product or a service company. This will decide your future actions and the amount of money you will have to spend.
Of course, if you want to start a product company, you need to come up with a game concept and decide what exactly you want to make. Is it a small puzzle game for mobile phones or a full-fledged VR universe? Do you want something completely new and original or will you follow the current trends? The game startup needs a strong and well-known brand name to gain customers. Basically, to make your game app, you need a team of developers, designers, marketers, testers, and other skilled pros. This question can be easily solved by hiring a distanced team of outsources.
Now, let’s discuss the most prominent game development startups that changed the world of gaming to get you inspired.
Game Startup: CastAR
The main focus of CastAR is augmented reality technology. This game startup project stands behind such innovations as AR glasses that create a combined game/reality space. Detailed 3D holograms of objects and characters will appear on the surface of sheet-like material and the glasses can transform your room into a game environment.
Of course, AR is not VR, which means that it doesn’t transfer you into a full-fledged world of digital. Instead, the characters and objects from another world appear near you. The ambitions of CastAR are great and they plan to develop their technologies further, bringing a completely new playing experience to gamers.
You might already have something in mind: a storyline, your characters, or a setting where you want your game to take place. These are all important things that you need to write down – they will come in useful in the future. If you can’t think of anything specific, though, don’t worry: here are some tips to help you find your unique idea.
Game Startup: SQream
Today, modern technologies, whether in the entertaining or marketing industry, strive for personalization. They look for advanced ways to provide you with particular content that you will like. SQream goes far here since this is a game startup that works with big data analytics. They have created a database platform that allows companies to find more ways to become closer to their users, increasing their experience and engagement. Because game companies have a bunch of different types of data to analyze, this technology can bring lots of benefits. Gameplay data, advertising, virtual/digital goodies, player interactions, and other information can be processed and evaluated quickly.
The analysis of users’ behavior goes in real time. What is more, the platform minds the personal historical data of every user, providing quick and timely data about the way he/she acts. By evaluating users’ preferences, a truly individualized playing experience can be reached. The best thing is that the platform does a great deal of work automatically and displays accurate and relevant data that can be used for improvements and new implementations.
Game Startup: Affectiva
Affectiva’s developers have created emotion recognition software for advertisers and marketers to let them analyze their consumers’ reactions. This was a very successful project that brought Affectiva a pretty nice income. With time, this technology migrated to the gaming industry and gave birth to emotion-aware games that have the potential to analyze faces therefore making another huge step in the personalization of players’ experience. The technology uses a web camera to catch the reactions of players and provide developers with accurate information about how their product works.
For instance, any startup video game company can use this software to learn if their horror titles are really scary. What is more, the game will interact with players’ state of mind, reading his/her expressions and customizing the process. If a player feels stressed, then the game can increase the level of adrenaline by releasing a monster or shooting spikes from the walls. As such, every player can have a personalized experience adapted to his/her reactions and emotions.
Game Startup: Sphero
Sphero is focused on connected toy technology. This one is especially beneficial when it comes to learning, so most apps created by Sphero are for kids. The apps are connected with robotics and provide a truly incredible innovative experience. The first project of that kind is a robot that moves when being controlled by a mobile device and this is Sphero’s product. Later, a great deal of such toys-to-life was created. However, Sphero focuses less on entertainment and more on learning, so their toys encourage children to grasp coding from a very young age.
Game Startup: Lucid Sight
Lucid Light stands behind an advertising software development kit that helps gaming companies monetize their products. The SDK assists developers in presenting their games on special platforms that suit them perfectly for VR. This way, they can create free and accessible products and showcase them without losing a VR effect that can be lost on a desktop or tablet. Lucid Light believes that virtual reality games should be free and high-quality and does everything for that.
Conclusion
Today, the gaming industry attracts a huge number of investors and numerous studios emerge across the globe. The competition is incredible, so startup projects can only become successful when they have something cool and innovative to present. The competition pushes the startup game industry forward. Therefore, striving to stand out of the pack, startup projects gave birth to several amazing innovations.
So such trends as augmented reality, emotion recognition, big data analytics, and connected toys are their main spheres of proficiency. This way, a fresh company that wants to enter the market, should have high technical skills as well as something similar to foresight abilities. The future of the gaming industry is already here and the technologies develop with incredible speed. So keep up with them and good luck!
