Before HQ Trivia or Fortnite dragged us into some semblance of social interaction on our mobile devices, there was QuizUp. Amassing about three million registered users in its first three weeks of release back in 2013, the app shot to #1 in the Apple App Store. Eventually a Google Android version was released and at one point it was called "the next Facebook". While thankfully it didn't become that, founder Thor Fridriksson is bringing a brand new game to your mobile devices — Hyperspeed.
Developed by Iceland based Teatime Games, Hyperspeed is the first release from a company focused on creating a social game platform. After a $9 million dollar Series A round (led by Index Ventures with involvement from Atomico), Fridriksson and company are finally ready to release Hyperspeed to the masses, hopefully finding the same success as QuizUp. Hyperspeed is being launched in conjunction with the Teatime Live gaming platform, which focuses on face-to-face mobile gaming using augmented reality integration and real time in-game video chat.
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Hyperspeed should not offer too much of a challenge when it comes to the actual game (compared to some of the more complex mobile games) but that's not a criticism. The focus here is on the social aspect. It's a space race game, in which part of the screen is dedicated to watching the AR enhanced face of your opponent, live. When you start the game you select an AR filtered "Gameface" and a starship, then you race.
Through the AR filtered lens, you can laugh at the silly look on your opponents' face as they take a hard turn or defeat an obstacle. You smash talk them in real-time. Unlike the anonymity of most online gaming, you are looking your opponent straight in the eyes, which should curtail most of the unwelcome behavior that exists in online gaming. Teatime Games is all about bringing people together through social interaction and games.
“Everyone at Teatime is incredibly excited to launch a new way to play mobile games, and we hope to see other games studios building interactive experiences on the platform. Hyperspeed is one example of a game using Teatime Live that we’ve created, but we expect to work with other game studios on many different genres" says Fridriksson, co-founder and CEO of Teatime Games in a press release. "Our games are made to emphasize the social aspect of being able to play together. It will allow the players to communicate through shared experience, the way we used to. Technology has the capability to both entertain us and connect us, and we see no reason why it shouldn’t do both."
Teatime Games plans on not only developing and launching more social focused games on its platform after the Hyperspeed launch, but also will eventually allow other game studios to build games on the platform with the hopes of ushering a new era of human interaction through mobile gaming. Popular apps like Tik Tok and Snapchat show that humans are at least ready and willing to watch each other do dumb stuff and games like Apex Legends and Fortnite prove humans are willing to do battle in a gaming environment ad nauseam.
I don't write about mobile apps much, but the appeal and mission of a game like Hyperspeed can't easily be ignored. Teatime Games has found a smart use for AR technology outside of individual fulfillment. While Pokémon GO broke new ground in AR mobile gaming, it took a while for it to have any social interaction features besides blindly bumping into strangers while hunting Pokémon in the middle of the street.
These are teeth grating times in the world, people are divided. Bringing them together through social gaming doesn't have much of a negative side. Sure, there will be some bad behavior, but for the most part, Hyperspeed's focus on social interaction will be entertaining and cathartic for humans in a stressed out world. We need to get out of our bubbles and see some new faces besides the same five weirdos we're always gaming with. Plus, when is a racing game not fun? Even Burnout ripoff Split/Second was fun.
Hyperspeed launches today and is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Get your game face on (literally, though that depends on your view of reality and whether or not augmenting it makes it real or not) and race.
