Father.IO – Multiplayer First Person Shooter Game
The latest real life take on laser tag tends to employ augmented reality which is a small infrared peripheral together with the internet capabilities of the smartphone putting you in conflict with people in your area as well as around the world. Hyped as a real-life enormously multiplayer first person shooter game, the said Father.IO tends to alter your phone into a virtual weapon. The IRL Shooter comes in a combination of laser tag with zombies, a purpose-built environment together with interactive storyline. Skirmos a hackable laser tag system has a colour LCD screen which is mounted on the guns.
App Tag provides additional Nerf like version of augmented reality laser tag. The unsuccessful Kickstarter project iTager made attempts in putting laser tag on an outstanding scale with ultra-long range wireless system. However Father.IO seems to be a little different. It tends to have a lot in common with the augmented reality of Google’s world domination game Ingress. Similar to Ingress, Father.IO would be having a free app which enables the user to choose a faction and thereafter battle for power over the 50 sq. m space one would be standing at any point of time.
Map Data – OpenStreetMap
The map data is from OpenStreetMap that has adequate detail which the game can provide places such as banks, universities, hospitals specials in-game implication. The designers of Ingress state that the world tends to become the game and unlike Ingress, Father.IO’s expeditions resource gathers together with base building seem to be the sideshows. Ingress is about espionage and intrigue.
However Father.IO is largely a game on shooting real people in the face with an imaginary gun. It provides the team or free for all death-match codes, rapid battles against those in the area together with web-based commander mode in directing the team from browser while one delays from work and weekly social events. The humans versus evolved faction war resumes every three months. The developers state that the outcome is not insignificant but top players would be capable of unlocking advanced classes, improved gear for their character as well as higher rankings.
Laser Tag: Powered by iPhone/Android Smartphone, Inceptor
From the hardware point of view, Father.IO seems to be powered by an iPhone or Android smartphone together with a clip-on peripheral known as The Inceptor which is a keychain sized polycarbonate sensor dongle. It tends to measure 70 x 25 x 30 mm weighing 30 g. It is wrapped in six infrared receiving sensors which are designed to sense shots from any angle or direction at an assessed range of around 50 m.
It has on-board ARM M0 processor, Bluetooth for the purpose of interfacing with the phone together with a microUSB charging port and an optical collimator for defining a hitbox, ensuring that only infrared light striking in that box is counted as a hit. Presently Father.IO is on Indiegogo having a target of US$50,000 which had been passed within its first 24 hours. At the time of writing, it was up to about $90,000 with a month left and 14 stretch goals yet to be hit.
Currently pledges begin at $20 for a Father.IO Inceptor and rises up to $10,000 for a `Party Pack’ comprising of 10 Inceptors, two launch party tickets together with some other perks. If all seems to go as plan, it is said that the Inceptors would start shipping by the middle of this year.
