Google Maps API Now Open To Developers For More Immersive Real-World Games

Google has announced that it is launching some new Google Maps APIs that will be a big deal for mobile game developers and studios. Google is now offering a way that will allow game developers to build real-world games using Google Maps. This means that a mobile game can best set in an environment that looks exactly like your city.

Google wrote, "Game studios can easily reimagine our world as a medieval fantasy, a bubble gum candy land, or a zombie-infested post-apocalyptic city. With Google Maps’ real-time updates and rich location data, developers can find the best places for playing games, no matter where their players are."

Google has brought "the richness" of Google Maps to the Unity game engine. Buildings, roads, and parks have been turned into GameObjects in Unity to allow developers to add texture, style, and custom touches to match the look and feel of their games. Google says that this will free developers from the "overhead of scaffolding a global-scale game world" and allow the devs to focus completely on building rich, immersive gameplay.

The move by Google gives the game developers access to an accurate and living model of the world to form the foundation of their game worlds. Google offers access to over 100 million 3D buildings, roads, landmarks, and parks from over 200 countries.

"We are excited to partner with Google to provide the most up-to-date and rich location data to enable us to create an immersive experience tied to your location. When new buildings or roads are built, we’ll have access to them in our game. Google Maps’ unrivalled location data, covering world-famous landmarks, businesses and buildings, like the Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, London Eye, Burj Khalifa, and India Gate, makes exploring your surroundings a breathtaking experience," said Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Next Games.

Google says that by building on top of the Google Maps infrastructure, devs will get faster response times, scaling on demand, and peace of mind knowing the game will "just work." Google notes that its early access partners are leveraging the ARCore to understand the under environment and reach over 100M devices across the ecosystem. Google will offer a live demo of the new APIs at GDC in San Francisco. Google Maps recently integrated tours of Disney theme parks from around the world, this means we could fight zombies at Disney World.