Tech company Foundry Six work with companies like Sony and Paramount on Augmented Reality. Today they’ve launched a Kickstarter for Arealm, and it is targeted at tabletop gamers who use video chat.
Arealm is compatible with any video chat such as Discord, Meet or Zoom. With it, DMs, GMs and players can transform into their tabletop RPG characters or NPCs. The project asks for $25,000 to fund, and you can see progress on the project page.
At the time of writing, there are still early bird offers that will give you a year’s access to Arealm for $30. It’s usually $120.
Foundry Six call their solution “Augmented Reality Cosplay”, and I guess that’s as good as any term. I’m used to “Face Masks” as a phrase from Snapchat, but true enough, Arealm goes full body.
I imagine you’ll use Arealm as a virtual camera. In other words, when you log into Discord or your video chat solution, you’ll have Arealm running, and the video chat will see that as a camera option.
There’s more than cosplay, though. The program will offer immersive maps, dice, stats and other items. The Kickstarter story doesn’t really go into any of these, but there is a Discord to join and ask questions.
If you miss the early birds, then it’s $25 for the 1-year subscription.
You could also pledge $60 to get alpha access, which means pre-launch access or even $100, to secure some “Arealm Gold”. Arealm Gold will be the virtual currency used to buy other costumes and skins from the software.
The estimated delivery is January 2022.
Is that the end of the story? Community contributions can be found in the comment section at the end of the page.
