Coming Soon: Dimensions, Augmented Sound Game Co-Created by Robert "Dizzy B" Thomas - Want a Beta Invite?

Dimensions is an iOS "augmented sound" game co-created by Robert "Dizzy Banjo" Thomas, who's developed incredibly innovative audio experiences for both the iOS and in Second Life. It'll include music from Hans Zimmer, the famed composer who also worked with Dizzy on the official Inception iOS app that millions have downloaded. Coming to the app store next month, ten NWN readers can get a special Beta invite to play the game now -- details below.

As with Dizzy's other iOS apps, Dimensions will integrate sounds from your real world environment, blending them into the virtual reality of the game's story and characters in it. Specifically, Robert tells me as an example:

"[Say y]ou are sitting at home having breakfast... You automatically enter the Tranquil Dimension because it is quiet around you. The clinking sounds from your breakfast cutlery spin off into infinity around you and generate melodies in the music... As you finish your breakfast, [game character] Emily from Mission Control appears in your ears, softly telling you that an Artifact has appeared nearby and you could collect it. You take out your device and look on the screen. It shows a map of your real location with the Artifact on your right. You use the beam to collect the Artifact, a special device you gained during Dimensionaut Training."

As you might imagine, Dimensions fits into Robert's new vision for virtual reality in the iOS age:

"I think the idea of playing games with virtual objects in the real world with your real activities is fascinating. Will Wright seems like he is interested in investigating this type of thing at the moment with Hivemind and some people think its a direction which could be a new horizon for gaming. The possibilities of gaming and virtual interaction spilling out beyond the digital/virtual realm and over many aspects of our life are mind blowing.

"Many people are trying to investigate how this could happen visually. This is exciting but is a very tough challenge and may be a way off technically. However, audio is ready go now. In 2009 Bruce Sterling coined the term Augmented Sound when describing RjDj. [Another app Robert helped develop. - WJA] Since then we have tried to explore this much further. In Inception the app, the concept developed into a fully formed sonic experience. Now with Dimensions it turns into more of a game, but a special type of game which takes place inside music and sound."

Want to find out if Dimensions will take us to another dimension of virtual reality? The first 10 people to email [email protected] with I WANNA BE A DIMENSIONAUT! as the subject title will get an early Beta invite.

Comments

[adec]

Looks interesting.. :)

[Mike McKay]

Will it be made available for Android?

[Dizzy Banjo]

Thanks very much to Hamlet for this piece, we have had a huge response for invites.

Unfortunately we can't give invites to everyone, but those who didn't make it in to the beta might like to follow @rjdj on Twitter. We may be announcing possible future beta rounds before launch there..

Sadly developing a project like Dimensions for Android is a very substantial task and is unlikely to happen in the near future. Of course, if we observe significant user traction on iOS and a big demand for it on Android we will review the situation.

The main issues are that the Android ecosystem supports a very wide range of devices and versions of the operating system with significantly different hardware and software capabilities. This is a problem for all types of apps, but is more of a problem for Dimensions because it uses so many sensors on the device which need very fine calibration. As I said, I hope we get into the situation where the workload to do this would be proportional to the demand for the app on that platform.

[games consoles]

will be bookmarking, brilliant!