AR competitive multiplayer game The Machines coming to iPhone

The first competitive multiplayer game designed to play in augmented reality (AR), The Machines, received a demonstration at Apple’s iPhone keynote today.

The game was introduced by Atli Mar Sveinsson, CEO of Directive Games. In the demo, Sveinsson and his colleague were able to point-and-shoot an iPhone to create the battlefield. In the MOBA-inspired game, players are tasked with shooting at each other while trying to destroy the other’s base. In AR, Sveinsson’s colleague could see the enemy on his screen and the more he moved around, the closer he was able to get. If his colleague leaned into the battle, the volume would increase.

The game is just another example of the games Apple is promoting as part of its augmented reality platform, ARKit. ARKit, which was introduced in June during another Apple event, will allow developers and designers to upload their AR-based apps for iPhone users to download. The Lord of the Rings’ Peter Jackson is working with Wingnut AR to bring an augmented reality tabletop battle game to the iPhone, also using ARKit.

The Machines doesn’t have a release date currently, but with ARKit set to go live with iOS 11, more information should be coming soon. Apple executive Phil Schiller also confirmed during his presentation that the iPhone 8 was designed with AR in mind. The dual-camera setup will allow iPhone 8 users to get the full AR experience, according to Schiller.

The iPhone 8 will be released on Sept. 22.