Award-winning Independent game studio HappyGiant has launched its critically-acclaimed HoloGrid: Monster Battle on Microsoft’s HoloLens platform. A tactical strategy game that combines elements of chess, board games, and collectible card games, HoloGrid: Monster Battle is now on five leading AR, VR and Mixed Reality platforms. The new digital-only HoloLens Mixed Reality version is available for download now on the Windows Store for $4.99 USD.
Leveraging the HoloLens platform’s core mixed reality technologies: spatial mapping and spatial sound, depth perception, gaze tracking, gesture input, and voice control; the HoloLens version of HoloGrid: Monster Battle “reads’ the player’s environment, and then allows them to place and scale the board and characters into the real world accurately.
“HoloGrid: Monster Battle allows you to see table top games in an entirely new way, mixing digital holograms of chess battle with the real world,” said Brandon Bray, leader of Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality Developer Ecosystem. “It’s amazing! I’m excited to see Happy Giant pioneering the path to bring games to life in your own home.”
Inspired in part by the Star Wars HoloChess scene, and created in conjunction with two-time Academy Award winner Phil Tippett, HoloGrid: Monster Battle brings the monsters of Tippett to life for the first time in a game. The gameplay is similar to that of games like HearthStone but set on a grid like Chess. Players can play against AI driven opponents.
“Playing HoloGrid on HoloLens is the ultimate experience. It fulfills the purest vision yet of the game we set out to make, and that I was inspired to play 40 years ago when I saw Star Wars as a young kid,” said Mike Levine, HappyGiant Founder and Creative Director. “Phil Tippett called it “magic” when I showed it to him, and I think that says it best.”
The new HoloLens Mixed Reality version of HoloGrid: Monster Battle is available at the Microsoft Windows Store for $4.99 USD. The Gear VR version of HoloGrid: Monster Battle is available on the Gear VR site for a suggested retail price of $4.99 USD. The mobile AR version, with physical playing cards, is available on both Amazon for $24.99 USD.