Mobile AR Game Design and Development
A hands-on program focused on building cross-platform AR/VR games — from engine fundamentals to shipping on multiple devices.
ENROL NOWProgram Outline
Course Modules
Module 1 — AR Game Design Principles
- Session length and context constraints for mobile AR
- Interaction models: tap, drag, pinch, and gesture
- Designing for unpredictable real-world environments
Module 2 — AR Foundation Technical Setup
- ARKit and ARCore feature parity and gaps
- Plane detection, raycasting, and anchor management
- Camera permission handling and graceful degradation
Module 3 — Shared and Persistent AR
- Cloud anchors with Google ARCore API
- Multiplayer state sync in shared AR space
- Saving and restoring AR sessions
Module 4 — Location-Based AR
- GPS integration and coordinate mapping
- Geospatial API (ARCore) for outdoor anchoring
- Performance on mid-range Android hardware
Device requirements
Students need access to an ARKit-compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later) or an ARCore-compatible Android device for on-device testing throughout the course.
Practical skills you can apply the moment the session ends.
Mobile AR games occupy a specific design space that desktop or headset VR does not. The player is outdoors or in an unpredictable environment, holding a phone, and the session length is typically short. Ignoring these constraints produces games that technically work but feel awkward to play.
This course starts with design before touching code. The first two sessions examine what makes AR interaction feel natural on a phone screen and where most AR game concepts fail in practice.
On the technical side, the program uses Unity AR Foundation as the cross-platform layer over ARKit and ARCore. Topics include plane detection, image tracking, light estimation, and persistent cloud anchors for shared AR experiences.
Students build three small projects across the course: a single-player placement game, a multiplayer shared-anchor experience, and a location-aware AR game using GPS and map data. Each project is tested on physical devices, not just the simulator.
Engines
Platform
Deploy
Where are you starting from?
Helps us understand what background participants bring — takes 10 seconds.