Create a Pokémon GO Style Augmented Reality Game With Vuforia: Part 2

What You'll Be Creating

In the last post of this series, we learned how to set up Vuforia and start developing an AR game from scratch, adopting a logic similar to the one used on Pokémon GO!

We've started development of an Augmented Reality game called Shoot the Cubes. Now it's time to improve the game by adding interaction and making the experience more engaging. We'll concentrate mostly on the possibilities Unity gives us, leaving aside Vuforia's specifics. Experience with the Unity engine is not mandatory.

1. Making the Cubes Look Alive

Let's start working on our game. So far we've managed to create an Augmented Reality scene that moves with the user's device. We'll improve this app by making the cubes spawn and fly around, and by letting the player search and destroy them with a laser shot.

1.1. Spawning the Elements

We've already set an initial position of the _SpawnController according to the device camera rotation. Now we'll establish an area around this point where our cubes will spawn. Now we'll update the SpawnScript to make the _SpawnController instantiate the cube elements with different sizes and random positions, relative to the _SpawnController.

Let's edit the SpawnScript class, adding some variables to control the spawning process.

We'll create a coroutine called SpawnLoop to manage the spawn process. It will also be responsible to set the initial position of the _SpawnController when the game begins. Notice that the Random.insideUnitSphere method causes the cubes to be instantiated at random locations within a spherical area around the _SpawnManager.

Finally, edit the Start() function. Make sure to remove the  StartCoroutine( ChangePosition() );  line and replace it with a call to start the SpawnLoop coroutine.

Now back in Unity you'll have to create a cube prefab to be instantiated by the script. 

  • Create a folder called Prefabs in the Project window.
  • Change the Cube element scale on all axes to 1 and change the rotation to 0 on all axes.
  • Drag the Cube to the Prefabs folder.
  • Delete the Cube from the Hierarchy window.
  • Select the _SpawnController and drag the Cube prefab from the Prefabs folder to the M Cube Obj field, located in the SpawnScript area of the inspector.


Finally, delete the Sphere located inside the _SpawnManager.

Now, if you press play in Unity and and run the project on the device, you should see the cubes spawning.

1.2. Rotating Cubes

We need to add movement to those cubes to make things more interesting. Let's rotate the cubes around their axes and over the ARCamera. It would be also cool to add some random factor over the cube movement to create a more organic feel.

Drag the Cube Prefab from the Prefabs folder to the hierarchy.

  • On the Scripts folder create a new C# Script called CubeBehaviorScript.
  • Drag the Script to the Cube prefab and open it to edit.

Each cube will have random characteristics. The size, rotation speed and rotation direction will be defined randomly, using some references previously defined. Let's create some controller variables and initialize the state of the cube.

Now it's time to add some movement to our cube. Let's make it rotate around itself and around the ARCamera, using the random speed and direction defined earlier.

To make it more organic, the cube will scale up from size zero after it is spawned.

2. Searching and Destroying

Those cubes are too happy flying around like that. We must destroy them with lasers! Let's create a gun in our game and start shooting them.

2.1. Shooting a Laser

The laser shot must be connected to the ARCamera and its rotation. Every time the player 'taps' the device's screen, a laser will be shot. We'll use the Physics.Raycast class to check if the laser hit the target and if so we'll remove some health from it.

  • Create a new empty object named _PlayerController and another empty object called _LaserController inside of it. 
  • Add a C# script called LaserScript inside the Scripts folder and drag it to _LaserController.

Inside LaserScript, we'll use a LineRenderer to show the laser ray, using an origin point connected to the bottom of the ARCamera. To get the origin point of the laser ray—the barrel of the virtual gun—we'll get the camera Transform at the moment when a laser is shot and move it 10 units down. 

First, let's create some variables to control the laser settings and get mLaserLine.

The function responsible for shooting is Fire(). That will be called every time the player presses the fire button. Notice that Camera.main.transform is being used to get the ARCamera position and rotation and that the laser is positioned 10 units below that. This positions the laser at the bottom of the camera.

To check if the target was hit, we'll use a Raycast.

At last, it's time to check if the fire button was pressed and call the laser effects when the shot is fired.

Back in Unity we'll need to add a LineRenderer component to the _LaserController object.

  • Select _LaserController and in the Inspector window, click on Add Component. Name it "Line Renderer" and select the new component.
  • Create a new folder called Materials, and create a new material inside of it called Laser.
  • Select the Laser material and change it to any color that you like.
  • Select the _LaserController and drag the Laser material to the Materials field of the LineRenderer component.
  • Still in LineRenderer, under Parameters set Start With to 1 and End With to 0.

If you test the game now you should see a laser being shot from the bottom of the screen. Feel free to add an AudioSource component with a laser sound effect to _LaserController to spice it up.

2.1. Hitting the Cubes

Our lasers need to hit their targets, apply damage and eventually destroy the cubes. We'll need to add a RigidBody to the cubes, applying force and damage to them.

  • Drag the Cube prefab from the prefabs folder to any place on the Stage.
  • Select the Cube and select Add Component in the Inspector window. Name the new component "RigidBody" and select it.
  • On the RigidBody component set Gravity and Is Kinematic to Off.
  • Apply those changes to the prefab.

Now let's edit the CubeBehavior script to create a function responsible for applying damage to the cube and another one for destroying it when the health falls below 0.

Okay, the cube can take now damage and be destroyed. Let's edit the LaserScript to apply damage to the cube. All we have to do is change the Fire() function to call the  Hit method of the CubeBehavior script.

3. Conclusion

Congratulations! Our Augmented Reality game is finished! Yes, the game could be more polished, but the basics are there and the overall experience is pretty engaging. To make it more interesting you could add a particle explosion, like I did in the video, and on top of that, you could add a score system or even a wave system with a timer to make it more of a challenge. The next steps are up to you!

3.1. What's next?

We created an interesting AR experiment using Vuforia on Unity, however we still have a lot of cool features to cover. We didn't see any of the more sophisticated Vuforia resources: Targets, Smart Terrain, Cloud, and so on. Stay tuned for the next tutorials, where we'll cover more of those features, always using the same step-by-step approach.

See you soon!

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