Yu-Gi-Oh!, arguably the holy grail of trading card games, is now a mixed reality HoloLens app thanks to one fan and the Microsoft HoloLens.
Developer Gold Team Productions recently revealed this unofficial mixed reality project, which moves us much closer to the fondly-remembered manga and anime series that brought cards to life in dramatic battles between players with fantastic hair. As you can see in the video below, the creator is able to place cards in front of the HoloLens, which will then scan the object and bring up the corresponding monster as a virtual image. That means a Blue-Eyes White Dragon in your living room for real.
Okay, so it does look very early and, as the developer notes, there are some issues with the scanning. But this is still a hugely impressive early look, especially given the fact that HoloLens isn’t reading any kind of QR code like we’ve seen in previous augmented reality games like the PS3’s The Eye of Judgment. It’s reading the real cards that players have already collected and using them to bring up full, if primitive, virtual models of the monsters they represent.
So how is this possible? According to the developer over on Reddit, it’s thanks to Vuforia, the AR software development kit (SDK) that’s currently in the very early beta stages for HoloLens.
“They very recently just added support for HoloLens and I tested it out immediately,” the developer revealed in response to one question. “It’s like super beta right now so as you can see it’s not perfect.”
Coming up next for the project is version 3.0, which Gold Team Productions considers to be a beta release that features online multiplayer support. Going forward, we just hope the project is allowed to continue without any legal interference.
This isn’t the first time a developer has tried to recreate the authentic Yu-Gi-Oh! experience with a headset. Late last year we showcased some footage of a fan project that used the Oculus Rift and a card scanner to bring monsters to life in VR. This experience seems to deliver a little more on that concept, though, and we have other full cards-to-life games in VR like Ascension and the upcoming Dragon Front.
