News::Challenge friends to real-life wizard duels with 'Maguss'

Harry Potter's brand of magic may not exist in the real world, but smartphone applications, electrical engineering and plastic wands sure do. Maguss uses all of these things, plus a badge that acts as a motion-sensing receiver, to bring wizard duels to the physical world. Maguss is on Kickstarter right now, seeking $66,191 to create and ship a kit allowing wannabe wizards to challenge friends to duels in-person and online. Players cast spells by waving the wand in specific motions -- in-person, the motion is picked up by the enemy's badge and smartphone app. Online, players conduct spells at their own badge and the motions are transferred to the rival wizard's app. In either scenario, whoever has the best wandwork wins.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Via: Refinery29

Source: Kickstarter

Tags: app, HarryPotter, hdpostcross, kickstarter, magic, maguss, wand

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News::Nick and Aaron on Gamescom: a conversation

Last week, two Engadget editors braved the sweltering Gamescom floor in Cologne, Germany, to bring you all the news. Now that the show is finally over, Aaron Souppouris and Nick Summers look back on a week at the world's largest public games conference, breaking down their highs and lows from Gamescom 2015.

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

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Tags: Gamescom, Gamescom-2015, Gamescom2015, microsoft, mirrors-edge, Scalebound, Star Wars, Tomb Raider, Xbox

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News::Your Android games are getting a software speed boost

iPhone users have low-level Metal code to speed up games and other visually intensive apps, but what if you're an Android fan? Don't worry, you'll get your boost soon. Google has announced that Android will soon support Vulkan, an open graphics standard that cuts a lot of the computing overhead and gives apps more direct control over video hardware. It's not as easy to work with as OpenGL, but it should let developers wring more performance out of your phone's processor. That could prove very important when you'd otherwise struggle to run a game on a lower-end phone, or want to get pretty, high-detail graphics on a shiny new flagship. It'll be a while before Vulkan for Android is ready -- the standard itself isn't available, let alone Google's implementation of it -- but it should be worth the wait if your Android devices double as game consoles.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Mobile, Google

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Source: Android Developers Blog, Imagination Technologies

Tags: android, gaming, google, graphics, khronosgroup, mobilepostcross, opengl, smartphone, video, vulkan

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News::Virgin-Tesla takes you to space in Gone Home studio's 'Tacoma'

Fullbright struck a nerve with 2013's Gone Home, its emotionally haunting tale of a 20-something who returns from Europe in 1995 to find her family home deserted. That indie game darling not only became a critical success for the small Portland, Oregon-based studio, but also won a BAFTA in 2014 for best game debut, and two VGX awards -- one for best PC game, the other for best independent game.

For Fullbright's follow-up, the near-future, set-in-space sci-fi tale Tacoma, the studio has some undoubtedly high expectations to meet. It's a good thing then that Microsoft, which has partnered with Fullbright to make the game an Xbox One exclusive, is there to lend a deep-pocketed helping hand. Tacoma is very much still in development and won't be out until mid-2016. But that didn't stop Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor and level designer Tynan Wales from trotting out a short 30-minute demo that gives a glimpse of the augmented reality and artificial intelligence that pervades Tacoma's world. I recently had a chance to chat with both Gaynor and Wales about avoiding the sophomore slump, their sci-fi inspirations, a possible HoloLens demo, killer AIs and why space could be a very gay place.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Tags: AI, AR, ArtificialIntelligence, AugmentedReality, fullbright, GoneHome, hdpostcross, HoloLens, interview, microsoft, SpaceTourism, stevegaynor, tacoma, uk-feature, virgintesla, xboxone

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