Cynical times
The Apple Watch has faced a wealth of cynicism, not least from those who consider the wearable device an ill fit for gaming. Of course, people were cynical about games on mobile phones, and then there was Angry Birds.
However
One outfit willing to consider the watch’s potential is Bossa Studios, a London-based team famed for tongue-in-cheek titles such as Surgeon Simulator. And now it is working on a smart piece of interactive fiction for Apple’s wearable.
“We asked ourselves how we use a watch,” says Bossa’s Vince Farquharson. “You take it out maybe every 20 minutes, and use it for maybe three seconds. So we have to design a game that you play every 20 minutes for three to four seconds. That doesn’t exist.” Or at least, it didn’t exist. Bossa has filled the gap with Spy_Watch.
Agents of change
Players of Bossa’s game assume the role of a person wearing a futuristic watch. Really, then, it’s a live-action role-playing game. But it’s also an espionage-themed text adventure. Every 20 minutes, a fictional colleague in the field checks in through the watch, via real notifications, so messages come through among emails and texts from real-world contacts.
The player simply has to tell their agent what to do to complete missions.
Outside the watch
It’s an engaging, absorbing model. And rather than pull on the graphical power of the Apple Watch, the game uses words to guide the player’s creativity. “We provide the situation. Then the imagination bypasses the restrictions of the screen,” says Farquharson. There may be hope for smartwatch gaming.
