kayla-kinnunenPokémon Go has quickly become the #1 mobile game of all time, and while there’s been some debate as to whether it should be considered Augmented Reality or not, it’s clear that location-based gaming has taken to the next level.

I had a chance to unpack some of the game design principles to see how it’s optimized to facilitate cooperative social gameplay with Roadhouse Interactive’s VR Director Kayla Kinnunen at Casual Connect this week. Kayla talks about how Pokémon Go has connected her to more strangers in two weeks than in 15 years, how it’s changing her relationship with her wife, encouraging her to walk more, as well as some of the social contract issues and deeper lessons for the future of augmented and virtual reality gaming.

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Here’s a video of a Pokemon Go stampede that happened in Central Park last week:

And here’s a video of a Squirtle crowd in Bellevue, WA downtown park from Pluto VR’s Shawn Whiting:

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Music: Fatality & Summer Trip

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Kent Bye
  • Andrew Jakobs

    Sheep…. that’s all I can say….

    • Frikster42

      Actually the sheep Pokemon Mareep can only be found in season 2. PoGo only has Season 1.

      • ibrokemyserious

        This reply is flawless.

    • Justos

      “I don’t like it therefore people that do are sheep”

      Says lots about your character buddy.

  • Pokemon Go is successful because it’s built on a long running Nintendo franchise and the already successful, and far more interesting game of “Ingress”. If Ingress had a well known IP attached to it from the beginning, Pokemon would be considered a minor part of an already record setting mobile game. The only lesson to be learned is to own already successful Intellectual Properties