Google Maps helps developers create real-world games

Pokémon Go created a worldwide storm in July 2016 when it debuted with "embedded" Pokémon in real world maps. Now Google is making any game developer able to do the same with Google Maps through the Unity game engine.

With the new Google Maps application programming interface (API) it will be much simpler to develop games based on actual locations - but still animated in ways imagined by humans in the middle. Ancient or city flooded with zombies.

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Next Games is creating the real-world version of The Walking Dead, using Google Maps technology. NBC Universal and Ludia are developing new Jurassic Park World games on mobile phones, also with APIs from Google Maps.

Clementine Jacoby, Google Maps product manager said: "To create mixed reality games or augmented reality, developers must understand the real world first . " In an interview with GamesBeat, she said: "Developers will now have access to the entire world, with global details constantly changing, updated in a real time. If the flood disappears a road, you will also see that reflected in the game map ".

Jacoby said: "Google Maps and game developers spend too much time and energy creating a world model for users to explore. The richness of the game world is an important factor to decide. The game in the game is getting more and more beautiful and big, but it also costs and time to create these world models that are increasing. Big world like in the Grand Theft Auto V game is just as big as downtown Manhattan ".

Therefore, the Google Maps team, which has been working on the map since 2005, has worked to create a version of Google Maps for game developers only."Our goal is to make the world a playground ," Jacoby said.

The Google Maps API makes it easy to convert real-world objects like homes, roads and parks into game objects in the Unity game engine, used by millions of developers. Developers can take those objects to add effects, textures, styles and customizations to match the look of the game world. The transition to the medieval world is also very simple, almost no hardship to turn a river in the real world into a lava in the game.

"With Google Maps data integrated into Unity, we can focus our time and effort on building detailed virtual experiences for users to find virtual dinosaurs in the real world." , said Alexandre Thabet, Ludia's CEO.

The maps will provide developers with a rich, accurate and vivid data warehouse around the world with over 100 million 3D buildings, roads, landmarks and parks from more than 200 countries. With Unity, you don't need to be Google Maps experts. More than 200 games are being developed this way.

Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO of Next Games, the game producer The Walking Dead said: "We are happy to partner with Google to provide the most up-to-date and rich location data, to help us. creating a profound experience associated with the location of users who are in. When new buildings or roads are built, we have access to them in our games. Google Maps includes world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, London Eye, Burj Khalifa and India Gate, making exploring the in-game world of players Become a spectacular experience ".

433, another game studio developing the Ghostbusters World game, also uses this new mapping technology.

Combining the Google Maps API with Unity can save a lot of time for developers. The map team is working with the Google ARCore team, which created software tools to develop augmented reality applications, and Google Cloud.

Video introducing Google Maps game API:

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