Glu Mobile announced today the availability of their new iPhone/iPod Touch game, 1000: Find ‘em All! It seems the game is very much like the DS title Treasure World in that it’s a location-aware treasure hunt, augmented reality in the sense that your game world and your real world are intricately linked, with each making the other more immersive. The location-awareness will use either the iPhone’s A-GPS or the iPod Touch’s Wi-Fi to determine where you are. As you wander around your world (your real world), you’ll see items around you (1000 items total, ranging from “a half eaten jam sandwich to a monkey with a typewriter”) which you can then pick up. Additionally, you can make your way to specific Wi-Fi hotspots which will bring up in-game ‘gifters,’ who will provide you with items. Finally, you can simply walk around an in-game world resembling that of classic top-down action-adventure games, hunting for items. In this sense, the game seems a bit more active and involving than Treasure World, which lent itself to passive play. While I can’t say which approach will ultimately mesh the virtual with the real in the most immersive way, I can say that I’m looking forward to checking 1000: Find ‘em All! out – available now for $2.99 on the App Store.
1000: Find ‘em All (iTunes Store link)
San Mateo, Calif. – February 4, 2010 – Glu Mobile Inc. (Nasdaq: GLUU), a leading global publisher of mobile games, today announced the availability of its 1000: Find ‘Em All! app on the App Store. The app lets iPhone and iPod touch users explore and discover items in the game’s fantasy world by navigating the actual, real world around them. Players can collect 1000 weird and wonderful items in three unique ways: GPS mode to explore the real world; searching for Gifters in the game world using registered real-world Wi-Fi hotspots; and interacting with the virtual game world.
“No matter where the day may take you, we designed the 1000: Find ‘Em All! App to be played in bite-sized portions and to make the world around you a bit more interesting,” said Alex Galvagni, CTO & SVP Global Product Development, Glu Mobile. “The app seamlessly integrates the players and their real world locations with the game itself, making the player’s actual location an essential part of the game. 1000: Find ‘Em All! brings GPS gaming on iPhone and iPod touch to the next level and we are excited to add another highly inventive game to our original portfolio of apps for iPhone.”
There are 1000 items – Find ‘Em All!
The goal is to search for virtual items that encompass a wide range of fun characters and gifts that players discover through a combination of physically traveling and exploring the world around them, as well as by seeking out Gifters. Gifters are special characters that appear in the virtual world, depending on the location of Wi-Fi hotspots in your actual, real world location. For example, when performing a search within the game, players might find a list of local cafes or hotels with hotspots near them. Each hotspot will create a character in the game, which in turn will provide a new item.
Players can also find items by exploring the real world using the innovative GPS mode in the app. Activating this mode while on the move will reveal a map of the player’s current location covered with collectable gifts. Walking towards a gift will add it to the player’s collection. The gift could be anything from a half eaten jam sandwich to a monkey with a typewriter. Each trinket and gizmo is one part of the collection of 1000.
The 1000: Find ‘Em All! App is available for $2.99 from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
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