Magic Leap to Offer “Deep Dive” on AR Game Design at GDC

After years of teasing, Magic Leap late last year finally offered a glimpse of the AR headset it’s been developing, the Magic Leap One. Details on what the headset can actually do are still light, but come next week, four of the company’s top creatives are promising to offer a “deep dive on developing for spatial computing,” in a session at GDC, which could reveal more about how the device’s capabilities apply to game design.

At GDC 2018 next week in San Francisco, Magic Leap will present an hour long sponsored session titled The World is Your Playground: Deep Dive on Developing for Spatial Computing. The session pulls together the company’s chief content officer, Rio Caraeff, interaction director, Aleissia Laidacker, director of interaction lab, Brian Schwab, and creative director, Jeremy Vanhoozer, for a look at the creative possibilities of AR and spatial computing:

Join four well-known developers, now at Magic Leap, as they discuss how storytelling, art, interactions and more can be brought to life using spatial computing. Attendees will be introduced to the concept of spatial computing, where tech is able to detect and respond to the environment, creating a seamless blend of the real and the digital, offering new potential for game experiences. They will learn best practices from the developers and designers building the platform and defining the medium. And they will be encouraged to bring their existing knowledge and experience to take on the opportunities and challenges presented by the development of games on this next computing platform.

In past presentations, Magic Leap has managed to talk about spatial computing game design while steering completely clear of actually talking about the product they’re building. This time around, with the company’s headset at least revealed on paper, we’re hoping Magic Leap’s GDC session will offer more substantive information about the headset’s capabilities as a medium for game design.

It’s significant that this is a GDC “sponsored session,” as it means Magic Leap paid for the opportunity to share the information with GDC attendees (as opposed to standard sessions which are unpaid and go through a selection process). There’s a chance this means they have a more specific goal in mind for the session beyond simply waxing about the possibilities of AR in general.

The company says the “takeaway” of the session is as follows:

Attendees will be introduced to a new definition of mixed reality, where tech is able to detect and respond to the environment, creating a seamless blend of the real and the digital, providing unlimited potential for new game experiences. They will learn best practices and design techniques from the developers and designers that are building the platform and defining the medium. And they will be encouraged to bring their existing knowledge and experience to take on the opportunities and challenges presented by the development of games for mixed reality.

We’ll be on hand at GDC to see learn what we can about Magic Leap’s vision of the “unlimited potential for new game experiences” that’s offered by immersive AR.

Magic Leap is one of the top funded startups in the world, and recently raised a boatload more cash, now totaling more than $2 billion. The company said they’d be revealing more details about the availability of the Magic Leap One headset this Spring, and last month CEO Rony Abovitz dropped a few hints on what it might cost.

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