Star Wars holochess co-creator brings concept to reality with HoloGrid

Monsters in your pocket

While not an official Star Wars product, special effects legend Phil Tippett’s (A New Hope, RoboCop, Jurassic Park, The Force Awakens) upcoming AR/VR card-and-video game HoloGrid: Monster Battle will definitely resonate with a lot of Star Wars fans. Since the Holochess concept seen in A New Hope and The Force Awakens was in-part Tippett’s creation, I think it’s more than fair for him to take the concept on the road at this point, more than 40 years after its initial inception. According to Mike Lavine of Happy Giant, co-developers of HoloGrid, “The tech has finally caught up to the point where this game can be made,” explaining the wait.

The plan is for HoloGrid to use a process called Phototelemetry to scan Tippett’s actual monster sculptures into polygon-based models, to be projected in three dimensions using AR or VR. Each monster will get its own physical AR card, with battles taking place on an set board, for an experience less like chess and more like Card Wars from the episode of Adventure Time of the same name. 

We’ll be hearing more from Tippett about HoloGrid and its terrifying bio-monsters soon enough, hopefully on an upcoming episode of Sup Holmes.