Let’s-a play

Abhishek Singh’s augmented reality version of Super Mario Bros has taken the Internet’s imagination by storm

When Abhishek Singh started playing with the Microsoft HoloLens, he decided to make an outdoor running experience with it. “While learning the basics of HoloLens development, I placed a cube in a scene and, for some reason, jumped right under it. Memories of Super Mario Bros came rushing back and that’s when the idea struck me,” he says via email from New York.

From there, it developed into a full-fledged playable augmented reality game featuring the video game’s first level, which can be played using a HoloLens. A video of Singh playing in Central Park — dressed as Mario to boot — has gone viral, and with good reason. The classic game by Nintendo evokes nostalgia among a large section of people. “People were definitely intrigued; I got a lot of curious stares. You can imagine seeing a person in a Mario costume jumping around with a weird contraption on his head. But it’s New York, so it was fine. It also led to a lot of interesting conversations from those who were brave enough to approach the crazy guy,” he says.

Get out and game

The idea of a game that requires physical movement is not new; Pokemon GO did it first. But there’s always room for more. Singh says it took him a month to complete the project. “The entire experience was built in Unity. I also had to model all the assets and elements of the game, and rethink the experience from a real-world 3D perspective,” he says, adding, “It was much harder than I anticipated. The most time was spent on tweaking the game to work in a large outdoor settings, something HoloLens is not necessarily designed for. It still has a few quirks, but is definitely playable. The final level was more than 110m long.”

Online fame

The 28-year-old graduate from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, who is currently doing a one year residency there, isn’t new to creating viral projects. He’s also the brains behind peeqo.com, a voice-activated desktop assistant that responds entirely through GIFs, and a 20-foot dragon that you ride to control a dragon in a virtual world. However, don’t expect the augmented reality Mario to make it to retail (due to copyright reasons), unless Nintendo decides to take it up or partner with Singh. Meanwhile, he is planning to do more: “I’m thinking of doing some of the underground levels in the NYC subways.”

For more of Singh’s work, check out shek.it.