For years Phil Tippet has been making monsters. As a 2-time Academy Award Visual Effects Supervisor and Director, he may be best known for his work on the original Star Wars films, Jurassic Park, Robocop, The Force Awakens, and many more. Now he is working with some very talented people at Happy Giant to create a unique and utterly mesmerizing new game.
“For years I’ve been making monsters for Directors to play with, and now for the first time, I’m making monsters for YOU to play with,” said Tippett.
“We’re excited about the new fields of Augmented and Virtual Reality, and to be working with our friends at HappyGiant to create HoloGrid: Monster Battle.”
HoloGrid: Monster Battle is a hybrid CCG/turn-based tactical strategy game, brought to you by Tippett Studio and HappyGiant. With the goal to defeat your opponent’s Champion, the game uses team and spell based combat, set on an AR tabletop-like playing board, allowing intense battles to take place.
Phil Tippett & HappyGiant announced the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for HoloGrid: Monster Battle, a new hybrid board game, CCG, and digital augmented reality game, recently named “Best Technology of PAXEast 2016” by http://www.MMOGames.com
“No other tech on the gaming floor combined so many cool, new ideas at once quite like this game. It managed to put together AR, CCG gaming and mobile gaming into a mixture that engages with its personality and depth of play.”, said MMOGames.com “HoloGrid could have easily leaned on its AR tech to make it simply a neat toy, but it has built a very compelling game in the process. It has managed to toe that difficult line between being accessible while also offering a strong level of strategy. In addition, it has a strong base to build on for more variety of cards. If HoloGrid can secure the right attention and make its game affordable, then Happy Giant has possibly caught lightning in a bottle.”
HoloGrid: Monster Battle’s gameplay is similar to Collectible Card Games (CCG’s) such as Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, but uses physical playing cards to trigger Augmented Reality creatures and a gameboard. Players will be able to play headtohead, either locally or remotely, and offline, non digital play is possible as well through a physical board that will come with the product. A “Hybrid” Board Game, Collectible Card Game (CCG), and Digital Game in one, it delivers to players a new type of gaming experience. Creatures battle on your tabletop with AR HoloGrid: Monster Battle is being built for next gen AR & VR platforms, but will first release for mobile devices, giving players the feeling that the creatures of Phil Tippett are doing battle right in front of them. “We’re excited to be launching this Kickstarter with Phil Tippett and his studio, and bringing to life a game so many of us have always wanted to play” said Mike Levine, President of HappyGiant. “This is game so many of us have always wanted to play” said Mike Levine, President of HappyGiant. “This is our first step into a new world of AR gaming, and while we are launching it on mobile initially so everyone can play it, our long term vision is to bring it to emerging AR and VR platforms.”
Photogrammetry
Another exciting aspect of the project is the use of Photogrammetry to scan Tippett’s real life physical monsters into 3D digital assets for the game, giving them a level of detail and character unlike any other. “We’d been doing experiments with Photogrammetry, but more on museum level artifacts,” said Levine. “At the same time we began exploring doing projects with Tippett, we had the idea, ‘What if we tried this on some creatures?’ The results blew us away. That’s really where this idea was born.” “And it’s the exact same technique we used on The Force Awakens,” added Tippett.
About Tippett Studio
Tippett Studio, founded in 1984 by animation pioneer Phil Tippett, is an Academy Award®winning
media production company specializing in CG animation and digital effects for feature films, television,
commercials, VR and AR. The Berkeley, CA based company has created visual effects for blockbuster
movies including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Ted, The Twilight Saga, Cloverfield,
Starship Troopers, Jurassic Park and Robocop. Tippett Studio’s commercial work has garnered four Clio
awards. Tippett Studio is currently in production on a large format ride for a Chinese Theme Park.
HoloGrid: Monster Battle is a hybrid CCG/turnbased tactical strategy game, brought to you by Tippett Studio and HappyGiant. With the goal to defeat your opponent’s Champion, the game uses team and spell based combat, set on an AR tabletoplike playing board, allowing intense battles to take place.
● Platforms: Mobile for main goal (iOS/Android), many others if we hit Stretch Goals.
● Boxed Product: The game is a onetimefixed price purchase. This is NOT a FreeToPlay mobile game and we won’t bother you with inapp purchases (read my lips!). We may introduce new creature card packs over time, but only if you want ’em!
● Strategy: If we hit our Stretch Goal of 30 Creatures, that’s well over 100,000 team combinations! The base 8 units provide over 400!
● Unique Abilities: All units will come with their own unique abilities, movement ranges, and more; allowing for endless amounts of strategy. See Creature Gifs below for more details.
● Character Classes Champions, Tanks, Specialists, Ranged/Shooters and Fighters.
● Spells Like the Creatures, every spell will be unique, and have the ability to shift the tide of the battle.
● Fast Paced: The game matches take only 1015 minutes, so you can play a quick session or multiple matches in no time.
● PvP / 2 Player Game The game is for made for 2 players/teams.
● MP Local Multiplayer included, and Remote Multiplayer if Stretch Goal hit.
HappyGiant – Founded by veterans of LucasArts, ILM, Hasbro and Pileated Pictures, HappyGiant is an independent developer and publisher of video games and entertainment for PCs, mobile, tablets and emerging platforms. http://www.happygiant.com
Key Personnel:
Mike Levine – Veteran of LucasArts “Golden Era” working on Sam & Max: Hit The Road, Full Throttle, The Dig, Monkey Island 2 & 3, Jedi Knight 1 & 2 and many others.
Bob Driscoll – Creator of “Scrabble Flash”, Game of the Year, Hasbro