BRAM STOKER’S VAMPIRES

AUGMENTED REALITY MOBILE GAME, 2012

HAUNTED PLANET [IE ]

This location-based augmented-reality game turns players’ smartphones into paranormal detection devices using the handset’s camera, GPS, compass/orientation sensors, network and audio. Players use the app to move through the city and to uncover a mystery that features historical and fictional characters related to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”.

Bram Stoker’s Vampires is played through Haunted Planet, a new type of smartphone gaming app that reinvents the traditional Gothic ghost story using modern technologies. While most smartphone games expect players to engage with a game world confined to a tiny screen, Haunted Planet sets the game in the real world and overlays all game content using augmented reality, not only in visuals but also in audio. As players find ghosts and discover their stories, they also explore their physical environment.

The game takes up to an hour to complete, and will take the player around Stoker’s old stomping grounds, which included Trinity College Dublin and Dublin Castle. The high-quality visuals and audio ensure maximum immersion into the game. While the best play experience will be in Dublin city centre, the game can also adapt itself to a player’s location if they cannot physically make it to the city. To install Bram Stoker’s Vampires visit www.hauntedplanet.com/stoker.

"“A key idea of Haunted Planet is to blur the boundary between the real [surroundings] and virtual [gameworld]. Augmented reality is great for doing that with visuals and audio, but it requires visuals and audio that blend well with the surroundings. The blurring of the boundary is a technique used traditionally in Gothic literature and also in modern horror films. For example, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is presented as a collection of evidence [journal extracts, newspaper clippings and the like], much like Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity films were presented as being real found footage. For the same reason, Haunted Planet does not present itself as a game [although that is of course what it is] but a ghost hunter’s app. The idea is that it could be real.”"

—haunted planet [ie ]