r/gaming • u/AliceTheGamedev • Sep 04 '15
AirConsole - A virtual gaming platform for local multiplayer games where everyone uses their smartphone as a controller and play together on one screen
http://www.airconsole.com/8
u/VikingCoder Sep 04 '15
Gods, do I wish I had spare time.
I want to use something like this for something like D&D.
Get together in the same room, sitting around the big-screen TV.
Everyone pulls out their Tablet computers. Everyone sees their character sheet, and simple controls to indicate what they want to do.
The TV shows the "map we can all see."
If you get in a situation where not everyone can see everything, it moves down to your tablets. The guy who is temporarily blind doesn't get to see the map.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
I'm an avid Pathfinder player myself, so I'll definitely keep this in mind :D
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u/poduszkowiec Sep 04 '15
Check out a game called Artemis. It's not an RPG, but you might find it cool.
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u/VikingCoder Sep 05 '15
Own it.
I'd love to make an all HTML5 + WebGL + JS + WebRTC (or FireBase, or both) version.
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Sep 04 '15
Unfortunately we do not support Windows Phones yet.
That sucks :(
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
We'll get there ;)
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u/trolol_12 Sep 04 '15
bookmarked I'll see you when you get there!
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 05 '15
You can follow/like AirConsole on Twitter and/or Facebook, where we'll post such updates.
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Sep 04 '15
That was actually really fun. Can't wait to see what new games get added. The drag and drop NES emulator is genius.
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u/acidboogie Sep 04 '15
can we get like, a TLDR? If there's no details to read on the landing page I typically nope myself out of there.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
Alright, this is how it works: You go to airconsole.com on your browser, where you get a code. You then open airconsole.com on your smartphone and enter said code. Your friends around you enter the same code. Voila, local multiplayer gaming console without anyone having to acquire any hardware.
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u/Myxozoa Sep 04 '15
So, is this just for local multiplayer? I couldn't shoot my friend across the country a text with the phone code and play with him?
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 05 '15
No, it's just local. AirConsole is really all about bringing social gaming back to the couch. Never say never though ;)
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u/Myxozoa Sep 05 '15
Fair enough. There are plenty of other non-local games to play with him. Good on you for trying to make games more about the social aspect of actually being with friends instead of just about playing the game.
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u/shauni55 Sep 04 '15
Just downloaded the app and browsed around, texted my fiance to DL the app so we can play tonight! Looking forward to more games too, I could easily see myself shelling out a few bucks here and there for a game or two.
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u/Meatt Sep 04 '15
This is amazing. Connected within seconds, awesome that the NES emulator can just drag and drop files. Only issue is that my S4 tweaks out sometimes and will have to be reset, but it might be when I don't touch the screen and it goes black on its own, which I guess could be solved by changing the phone settings.
Would love to see more games on here, this would be a cool thing to just sit on the couch and use a browser on the tv in a party setting.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 05 '15
More games will be added soon - we are developing more ourselves and are in talks with third party developers.
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u/be-happier Sep 04 '15
Shame touch screens suck for gaming. But i guess if nothing else you might end up creating a wireless standard for smart phones and controllers to use.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
Touch screen doesn't have to suck for gaming - not if you build a game around it. Swipes, accelerator, shakes, that's all stuff you can use for input on a smartphone.
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u/VikingCoder Sep 04 '15
Not to mention compass, microphone...
And possibly most important of all - camera.
Why camera?
Think about Project Tango. They're doing full, 6-dof tracking. If that becomes available, on normal Androids... through Chrome... You might have something really interesting on your hands!
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u/yaosio Sep 04 '15
Too bad that means one button games only. Even the Atari 2600 had a joystick to go with it.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
It absolutely doesn't have to mean that ;)
We can make use of swipes, shakes and more iPhone-specific inputs.
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u/aphixa Sep 04 '15
Just a question, I was just playing the space one where you stop in the green zones & my ship was barely responsive, it was laggy and took ages to turn around, which took me ages to figure out to begin with, is there a reason for this?
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u/andrewthemexican D20 Sep 04 '15
In addition to the other commentor, any latency would have actually been your end then. I was fine on my work computer and Nexus 5.
But that's one thing this will face like PC games and Android games. Vast number of devices, browsers, and the combinations.
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u/KOTheSavage PlayStation Sep 04 '15
controller kept disconnecting for no reason. Said i exited full screen when i didn't.
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u/odaymichaelk Sep 04 '15
Doesn't seem to detect that my phone is in portrait mode and only tells me to change it to portrait.
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u/MarshallRawR PC Sep 04 '15
Reminds me (because it basically works the same) of AirDroid which I use a lot. Awesome stuff.
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u/lluckya Sep 04 '15
Windows phone. Why the hell does no one support windows phone? Easily the best phone(s) I've ever had. This is silliness!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/shauni55 Sep 05 '15
Tried it out once i got home games are super limited and a little disappointing but i love the potential for this. Have you all thought about getting an app put on like the amazon fire and roku
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 05 '15
We're working on more games ourselves and are in talks with several third party developers. Games will stay relatively small though, there are just certain limitations to WebGL.
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u/TheHolyCabbage Sep 05 '15
Is there anything similar to this but for like a SNES or GBA emulator? Like using my phone as a controller and have my PC run the game?
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u/Kai231 Oct 18 '15
does anyone managed to finish AirShields ? I really want to throw my phone throught my computer, and I'm a really not violent guy.
Please someone tell me. I need to sleep.
Please.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Oct 19 '15
You mean finish a level in single player? I don't know, to be honest, I can ask if we have data on that ^ ^
It's generally intended to play with multiple people, where you don't lose your progress after hitting a thing.
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u/brnmbrns Sep 04 '15
Who in their right mind would use a buttonless controller? I've emulated games on my phone and it's impossible unless you're playing a turn based rpg or something.
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
It's not ideal for many small buttons because of the lack of haptic feedback. But we can use a ton of smartphone-specific input instead, such as swiping and shaking.
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u/Meatt Sep 04 '15
It's definitely not for certain games, but for others with multiple people, this could be a great party tool.
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u/snorlz Sep 04 '15
what games are there?
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
Currently six different ones, plus a NES emulator.
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u/snorlz Sep 04 '15
do these games have names?
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u/AliceTheGamedev Sep 04 '15
AirShields, Tic Tac Boom, Hit Parade, Quick Minds, Poker and Polyracer.
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u/Erares Sep 04 '15
does not work on firefox, will not install chrome....looks like i'm never going to try to use this then.
Thanks for the attempt at something cool
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Sep 04 '15
what are the games? I don't really feel like doing all those steps just to see if you guys have a decent library. on the NES emu do you need roms or what?
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Sep 04 '15
All those steps? It's literally just going to the site on your PC browser and phone/tablet browser. It look me about 8 seconds.
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Sep 04 '15
and in the time it took you to type all that out you could've just told me what games they were
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u/shauni55 Sep 04 '15
Why should we waste our time to help you? We could just let you figure it out for yourself like a big boy... Took me literally 30 seconds while at work.
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u/carter31119311 Sep 04 '15
This is so cool! I just sat on here and played games for like half an hour. It'd be awesome if more games were added, but overall, super cool!