‘Waking Tides’ at STEAM reveals seamless blend of AR and FPS – That’s Gaming

53

Versatile creative and entrepreneur Dries Schaballie publishing as AirshipFX is gearing up for the launch of his groundbreaking hybrid Augmented Reality (AR) and First-Person Adventure video game Waking Tides, scheduled for an official release on PC via STEAM later this year. The game promises an innovative and engaging atmospheric adventure game that thrives on experimentation. Get ready to delve into a world where augmented reality expands your gameplay, seamlessly blurring the line between reality and fantasy.

Waking Tides introduces a compelling story: in the dark haze of an unsettling fog, a fateful bond is broken when your faithful companion disappears into the watery abyss. When consciousness returns, you find yourself on an enigmatic oil rig, terrifying evidence of the unknown. Bizarre and alien objects litter the deck of the rig, their unearthly presence mocking the laws of reality. As a pulsing pain grips your skull, an enigmatic and dangerous odyssey unfolds, inviting you to discover the secrets hidden within this twisted realm.

Waking Tides takes players on an immersive FPS adventure, where AR adds a unique dimension, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The game features challenging puzzles, allowing players to summon optional hints through the accompanying webAR application. What makes this truly exceptional is that the AR functionality directly uses the native webAR capabilities of smartphones, eliminating the need for external app downloads – a symbiosis currently unmatched in the gaming world. Developed using the powerful Unreal® Engine 5, the game’s AR models are direct exports of the 3D engine, created via a proprietary workflow.

Waking Tides is the brainchild of Dries Schaballie, who produced the game with the occasional help of temporary freelancers during a development process lasting more than a year. Waking Tides, an industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience in multimedia and XR projects for major clients, is the first of many games to come. He highlights the exciting era of rapid evolution in entertainment technology, which presents a challenge to create innovative and engaging content. Dries embraces visionary concepts, such as the fusion of AR with FPS gameplay and strongly notes, “I am convinced that the art of storytelling will continue to evolve into an awe-inspiring symphony with modern technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality.” New experimental games are also in the works, as well as plans for an Apple Vision Pro application and a short film Unreal Engine 5 with an accompanying multiplayer gaming experience.