Big Blue Ceiling

The Blue Vale

A d20-style tabletop roleplaying game played in augmented reality, on almost any device.

Eddie OffermannAR design, software architecture, story

Role
AR design, software architecture, story
Areas
XR, Apps
A cavern level of rocky hex tiles, torches and small figures rendered on a real patio table, with patio chairs and a railing behind it.

The Blue Vale is a tabletop roleplaying game that plays out in augmented reality. It was Big Blue Ceiling's first major commercial project, and we took it to Kickstarter.

Tabletop groups love miniatures and hand-built sets, but they're expensive, slow to make, hard to transport and rarely reused, and long campaigns fall apart when players move away. We wanted to keep the tactile, around-the-table feel of tabletop play and take away the bulk. In The Blue Vale the table becomes the board. Players explore a woodland village, cross the mountains and descend into caverns to find the force draining life and magic out of the world. At some points they step off the table into full-size spaces, like the forge or the library.

Cards as well as dice

The game is d20-inspired, with a combat card system layered on top. Cards work like tokens you hold until you need them: temporary armor, instant feats and one-time or rechargeable power-ups. Character creation uses body types such as "lithe" and "robust" rather than male and female, so players can build characters that look like them.

Many devices

No AR platform dominated, so the game sits on a compatibility layer that translates input from each platform into one common interface and uses whichever AR toolkit fits the device. It targeted ARKit iPhones and iPads, Tango Android devices, Microsoft HoloLens, Surface tablets and Epson Moverio glasses. Older phones without world-scale tracking use a printed mat and game screens to learn the size of the table. That layer came directly from the SDK we built for HoloFlect, which shaped the game's architecture, and a HoloFlect tier was planned as a stretch goal.

We also designed an accessibility framework so blind and deaf players could play, and planned to release it for other developers.

The game grew out of TangoTown, a two-day Tango experiment, and the Augmented Tarot.

  • Play video: The Blue Vale: Product Introduction
  • A cavern level of rocky hex tiles and torches rendered on a patio table, with the game's round menu icon and a yellow targeting ring over it.
    A dungeon level laid out on an outdoor table.
  • A woodland village of hex tiles with trees, cottages and dirt paths rendered on a tabletop.
    The woodland village, where the story starts.
  • A ring of purple rock walls and hex tiles with a lit fire at the center, rendered on a patio table next to a harbor.
    Heading down into the caverns.
  • A parchment-style game mat lying on a round glass patio table, surrounded by four chairs.
    The printed mat. Devices without world-scale tracking use it to understand the scale of the table.
  • A muscular character in a leather vest stands on a cracked-earth platform on a real table, in front of a framed Character Creation panel listing six attributes.
    Character creation happens on the table, at miniature scale.
  • Close view of the Character Creation panel with arrows for Fortitude, Vitality, Artistry, Judgment, Intuition and Charm.
    The six attributes: Fortitude, Vitality, Artistry, Judgment, Intuition and Charm.
  • Close view of the character next to a parchment panel explaining Fortitude.
    Each attribute explains what it does in play.
  • The character crouching on the cracked-earth platform, seen from slightly above, with the attribute panel behind.
  • Leaving the table and walking into the forge. The game moves between tabletop scale and full scale.
  • Inside a stone forge with a timber ceiling, a barrel in the foreground and weapons racked along the wall.
    The forge at full scale.
  • A gateway in a real room opens onto the library.
  • A wooden library table covered in scrolls and books on a plank floor with a patterned rug.
  • A small printed board with a hex pattern and The Blue Vale logo lying on a coffee table in a dim room.
    An early printed board used as a tracking target.
  • A tablet held over the printed board shows forest hex tiles with trees and a stone path.
    The forest hexes on a tablet, tracked from the printed board.
  • A tablet screen filled with giant spotted mushrooms and rocky hex tiles.
    A fungal cavern level on the same board.
  • Campaign banner showing The Blue Vale logo, the character creation scene, a fan of combat cards and a dungeon level, with the line D20-inspired Gaming. Combat Card System. Augmented Reality. Many Devices.
    The campaign banner.

Sources

  • AR Portals

    Step through a doorway from the real world into a virtual one.

    • XR
    • Apps

  • AR Scuba

    An underwater 360 video performed as a hologram.

    • XR
    • Apps
    • Computer Vision

  • ARHero

    Augmented reality tabletop gaming on everyday Android phones.

    • XR
    • Apps

  • Augmented Clothing

    Clothing as a platform for augmented reality, starting with hats.

    • XR
    • Apps
    • Computer Vision