Pokemon Go for dummies

Pokemon Go is a free-to-play reality video game described by its creators, US-based Niantic Inc, as “the next evolution of real world gaming”. The game is now officially available on both the App Store and on Google Play Store in Australia, New Zealand and the US but has created a rage all across the world within a couple of weeks after its launch in the second week of July.

According to some estimates, the game has become the most used smart device app, surpassing online stalwart apps such as Candy Crush Saga, Snapchat, Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook, in terms of its daily usage — though this could also be because of the launch phase and the novelty of the concept. Pokemon Go was apparently installed on 5.16 per cent of all Android devices in the US by Friday, July 8, only three days after the app’s release, according to online tracking service Similar Web. While the game will be available in other countries around the world in the days ahead, consumers are in no mood to wait. Using an APK (Android application package), lakhs of users across the world have been downloading unofficial versions of the game.

Five years ago, Niantic created what the company calls “the world’s first real world gaming platform”. By exploiting the capabilities of smartphones and location technology and through building a unique massively scalable server and global location dataset, it claims to have helped users all around the world have fun, socialise, and get more fit as they play and explore. Ingress, the company’s first “real world” game, has given players an entirely new way to see the world around them. Those players have coalesced into an amazing global community where players compete, collaborate, and celebrate in more than 200 countries around the world. Some have literally travelled to the ends of the earth in their quest to help their faction control the world.

With the Pokemon Go game, Pokémon fans and gamers can explore their very own neighbourhoods and cities to capture Pokémon using the Pokémon GO app. These players can discover and catch more than 100 Pokémon from the original Red and Blue games, take Pokémon into battle against other Pokémon at Gyms, uncover items including a variety of types of Poké Balls and eggs at PokéStops, hatch and train new Pokémon and so on.

The creators of the game have also created the Pokémon GO Plus wearable device which will enable players to capture Pokémon and harvest items from PokéStops without taking their phone out of their pocket or bag. A camera feature in the game enables trainers to take photographs of their wild Pokémon encounters. For instance, a player can take a photo of Squirtle next to that scenic lake or Ivysaur hanging out by the park. The photos are saved to the player’s phone camera to share with their circles, further increasing the excitement around the sport.

The Pokémon GO’s all-new music track is composed by Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda, who has decades of experience composing original music for the Pokémon games. Exploration has always been at the heart of the Pokémon series since it started out as a video game in Japan in 1996. A young person strikes out on a monster-collecting adventure, learning about the world around them along the way.

In the version of Pokemon Go, players start the GPS-powered, augmented reality, real world adventure by choosing their starter Pokémon from the original triad of Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. The player’s “boy character” pops up on a map of the area surrounding their area.

The floating blue cubes that dot the map around their place are PokeStops, landmarks that trainers can access to randomly gain items like PokeBalls, medicine and eggs. Tap on them and the name of the landmark appears. Get close and spin them with a swipe and items fall out.

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