Playing augmented reality (AR) games in the office always attracts a crowd, and it’s telling that the posse of onlookers lingered a lot longer than usual when we fired up Orbu.
This is a handsome game of zen garden-based minigolf, with an AR twist. Pull down on the screen to aim your Orbu and let go to fire it off into a string of genteel Japanese gardens, all beamed onto your living room floor through AR.
You can try and reach par if you like, but in keeping with the zen vibe, Orbu is best enjoyed if you leave your competitive urges to one side and just enjoy peering in and around these beautiful AR landscapes. Pinging the Orbu about as you please triggers some lovely little incidental moments and details – it’s clear there’s real pedigree in the development team behind this game.
Before setting up new studio Dream Reality Interactive, Dr David Ranyard spent almost two decades at PlayStation, helping create innovative experiences like SingStar, Wonderbook and EyeToy. When he set up Dream Reality Interactive, he took several of his team with him, all of whom had worked extensively on virtual reality projects previously.
So, polished and well executed as it is, this debut game is very much the start for this small but ambitious team; like some sort of App Store hipster, we suggest you download Orbu before Dream Reality Interactive goes mainstream.