The Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Francisco is seeing a lot of new gaming focused announcements coming from Google and a new one is the opening up of a Maps API for game developers.
The opening of a Maps API for game developer appears to be in response to the worldwide phenomenon that is Pokemon Go, one of the most well know Augmented Reality games around that relies heavily on Google Maps data.
The API gives developers access to the over 100 million 3D buildings, roads, landmarks, and parks from over 200 countries, included in Google Maps. There’s also tools for Unity which allow developers to turn these features into GameObjects that can be skinned and customised however the developer wants.
One of the bigger games expected to use the new Google Maps API is the recently announced Ghostbusters: World from developer FourThirtyThree Inc. CEO of 4:33, HAN Sung Jin said of the announcement
Building game interactions around real-world places at global scale and finding places that are relevant to users and fun to play is challenging. Google Maps APIs helped us incorporate the real-world, user relevant locations into our game. Users from all over the world can experience the Ghostbusters virtual world through our game, leveraging Google’s location data
4:33 has a booth at GDC and is showing off a new gameplay video from the upcoming game which looks like it could capture some of the keen Pokemon fans currently out there:
We’ll be seeing a lot more from the release of the Maps API in the coming year so stay tuned.
