3 Principles For The Future Of Gaming, From A Google Game Designer

John Hanke, the man at the helm of Google’s experimental game, Ingress, charts the course for the future of mobile gaming. Last month, Google unveiled its first mobile game, an ambitious, experimental thing called Ingress. The experience hinges on the narrative that an exotic energy has been discovered on Earth, and two factions, the Enlightened and the Resistance, are respectively scrambling to cultivate it and/or suppress it. It’s kind of boilerplate sci-fi, but the novelty lies in the way the game is played: After players choose their allegiance, they’re tasked with going out into the real world and visiting various destinations to claim territory for their squad. It’s something like what you’d get if you threw geocaching, World of Warcraft, and J.J. Abrams in a blender--a massive multiplayer experience that transpires not in a virtual world but in ...