Wizards vs Robots is going beta!
The Game
Wizard Vs Robots is a multiplayer game intended to be played in person. Inspired by game mechanics from both parlour games like “Cidade Dorme” and “Detetive” aka “Mafia” and “Werewolf”, and their digital evolutions like Among Us. In WxR, the majority of players are wizards and among all the players there are a pre-determined number of robots that act as an “enemy” or “impostor” during the game. The wizards’ objetive is to discover who are the robots while completing tasks scattered through the game location. Meanwhile, the robots must complete tasks to obtain tools to poison the wizards without being discovered.
The Gameplay
The game is divided in two dimensions, the digital one, which takes place on your cell phone screen, and the physical dimension that gives the game a “boardgame” aspect, the two together combined with the game’s dynamics create the unique environment of Wizards vs Robots.
Through NFC technology, players use their cell phones to scan various physical NFC tags that look like playing cards cards and are placed around the environment where the game is taking place. In addition, each player also has a tag to attach to the arm that must be used through the match.
The game Tags/Cards are divided in 3 types: Players, Tasks and Campfire.
Campfire is the central tag of the game and it is the tag that players must scan with the app to start the game, deliver tasks, receive ingredients and gather for tense meetings and elimination votings.
The player tags must be attached to the arm of the players, and each one must scan their tag to enter the game, in addition this tag can also be scanned by other players during the game tasks and of course, in the elimination dynamics, which is when a robot poisons a wizard to eliminate him from the game.
Task tags represent tasks that players must perform during the game period, they are necessary for Wizards to win the game, and for the robot to get poison items to eliminate Wizards. When a player scan a task tag, an inside MiniGame pop's up at the app screen, and the player must complete the minigame to earn the task reward.
With all these elements combined, Wizards vs Robots creates a unique dynamic that brings out the dynamics of old games and table games such as catch and card detective, but with a multidimensional proposal capable of providing an increase in immersion of the experience through the technologies used and mechanics created.
Development and technology
Wizards vs Robots is a project thas's being developed by TuquiStudios, a group of developers and designers from Apple Developer Academy (PUC-PR), a project that consists of teaching iOS development through the CBL (Challenge Based Learning) methodology.
"Using a methodology based in challenges has allowed us to begin the development of what we believe is a killer project. With it, we are permeating all the important parts of designing a project and looking into the critical questions that are leading us to our final proposal."
TuquiStudios Team — Image and quote from the project Documentation
During development the team did several usability and gameplay tests using very low fidelity game prototypes, involving players to warn each other about game events and the need of person with the role of a mediator during matches to track events and mediate gameplay dynamics with the players, over time these prototypes were improved through technologies such as Multipeer Connectivity that was used to mediate the matches, with a host acting as a server, along with this NFC tags and scan dynamics were added and later a cloud party server was developed to mediate matches and replace multipeer as it prooved to have issues of connection when players were moving around the game space.
Check out this demonstration POV video that the team made during their gameplay tests with some the concept MVP:
Multipeer connectivity is a bit limited for our idea. Althought it’s great on short distances, when moving aorund, some disconnections may happen. This is why we decided to go to a separated server, using WebSocket. This way we can play on larger spaces, not depending on wifi connection.
Tuqui Studios Team
Alongside with all the technology validation and testing the crew also started working on a final version of the NFC Tags and other physical game parts that is still to be finished and released.
The Beta
Wizards vs Robots is already available for download on iOS devices at Apple's Beta Testing Plataform Testflight despite of that the game still can't be played, because it needs the physical NFC Tags to work, but you still can download it to take a look on the app launch screen and scan some NFC tags around to see what happens, what if the developers hid any secret messages or news about when the next release will be, maybe it's just under a spell…
About TuquiStudios
TuquiStudios was born inside Apple Developer Academy (PUC-PR) with the objetive of providing fun moments by articulating nostalgic games with technology, Wizards vs Robots is the first project of the group of 6 friends, including designers and developers, who intend to continue with TuquiStudios after the completion of the Apple Academy project.
You can follow TuquiStudios on Instagram to check out the next releases:
