Weta Workshop Unveils Dr. Grordbort's Invaders for Magic Leap One

Weta Workshop unveiled Dr. Grordbort's Invaders, his first game for Magic Leap One Creator augmented reality glasses. He made it to L.E.A.P. conference in Los Angeles today. It is available now.

Dr. Grordbort's invaders take advantage of Magic Leap's non-slip sunglasses, where you can see animated bots coming out of the walls of your real physical space. Weta spent five and a half years working there.

The goal of Magic Leap is to mix a layer of digital animations over the real world, so you can not tell the difference between the digital world and the physical world. I played a short hands-on demo today, as well as demonstrations of a bunch of other games and applications during the event.

Weta Workshop is part of Peter Jackson's special effects studio in New Zealand. Weta created the dazzling effects for The Lord of the Rings movies. Weta Workshop and Magic Leap have been working on the project for several years.

Magic Leap has raised about $ 1.8 billion to create its anti-reflective glasses and ecosystem. The full game will have a slower pace and experience told. I was escorted into a steampunk style room, put on the Magic Leap One Glasses, and then saw a portal open in the wall. The connection between animation and the real world was rather transparent.

A little robot came out of the gate and gave me a ray cannon with his thick British (or maybe New Zealand) accent. Then Dr. Grordbort appeared as a kind of hologram in space and warned me that an extraterrestrial invasion was about to begin. The portals started to open in the walls and big yellow robots started to cross them. I had to shoot them and in doing so, I came across an explosion of clichés.

I had all the freedom of the room, because the glasses were connected to a small puck that I carried in my pocket. It was a fun experience that made me sweat and was hungry for more.

Weta co-founder and creative director Richard Taylor, game designer Greg Broadmore and Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz attended a press event to unveil the game.

When asked why he was interested in gambling, Abovitz replied, "Kill robots". In fact, he said that he had designed the robots, and he was invited to visit Broadmore at Weta to discuss the collaboration.

"There were all those big ray guns and robots being designed, and we thought, 'It would not be great if it worked,'" said Abovitz.

Broadmore said the science fiction story had inspired their game design, with its mix of old steampunk and modern technology.

Taylor said he and Broadmore had visited Magic Leap a few years ago in Plantation, Florida, where Abovitz had introduced light field display technology behind Magic Leap One glasses.

"For me, this has enlightened the brain, and the last eight years and intensely over the last 5.5 years have been real to me," Taylor said.

Abovitz said the new game was a showcase. Noting the Steampunk style room, he said the Grordbort project will show up where you can go with Magic Leap technology. Abovitz congratulated Weta for taking the risk of working on a new world of play on a brand new device.

"It's a great expression of our philosophy," he said. "We want the creators to take that and work with it. We do not need to submerge everything without a system. You have a room with paintings and sculptures. When you sleep in what we do, it suits you. All other art forms can coexist at the same time. That's what you can do with space computing. "

Broadmore said the team had been learning for 4 ½ years and had been playing for 18 months.

"It was our spear project, so if we could not do it, we would not do it," said Abovitz.