Peridot: Pokémon Go developer Niantic announces new AR pet game for Android and iOS

Peridot is the next augmented reality game from Niantic, the developer behind hit AR mobile games like Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Like Pokémon Go, Peridot is packed with creatures and involves both real-world and AR elements. In Peridot, players will have to take care of the creatures by training them, feeding them and playing with them. You’ll also have to help them grow from tiny creatures to full grown adults and then continue raising them. It’s like Niantic’s own Tamagotchi game.

Here’s the setting for the world of Peridot, from Niantic: “After thousands of years of slumber, the Peridots are awakening in a world very different from the one they wandered in, and they will need your help to protect them from the extinction .”

Like previous Niantic games, including Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, much of the gameplay requires the player to step out into the real world and experience the outdoors. There are plenty of real-world experiences in the game, such as finding breeding nests in the wild, walking your peridot, or finding specific types of food for it. Another interesting thing about the game is that there is no death in the gameplay, as peridots never die.

Similarly, AR seems to be a big component of the game, just like in Pokémon Go. Peridot is built with Niantic’s Lightship platform and the developer claims that the game’s virtual creatures can recognize different real-world surfaces such as dirt. , sand, water, grass and foliage and react accordingly. All the creatures in the game have their own DNA and characteristics, which makes them different.

After the resounding success of Pokémon Go in the summer of 2016, Niantic had primarily focused on more licensed properties like Pikmin Bloom, Harry Potter, and, soon, Transformers. With Peridot, Niantic is going back to creating its own IP address, like it did with Ingress before Pokémon Go.

Peridot doesn’t have a specific release date, although Niantic says it will roll out to select markets later in April on both Android and iOS.