Star Wars holochess creator is turning to Kickstarter to fund his new game

Famed movie artist Phil Tippett's most famous work could soon become a reality: but he's turning to Kickstarter to make it happen. Today Tippett announced the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to fund HoloGrid: Monster Battle, a new game based on the iconic holographic chess game from Star Wars (which Tippett designed the stop-motion characters for). The campaign is looking to raise $100,000 to fund development. HoloGrid is being designed as a collaboration between Tippett's studio and HappyGiant, a game developer comprised of veterans from LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic, and more.

"This is our first step into a new world of AR gaming."

HoloGrid will utilize a technique known as photogrammetry, which essentially creates 3D renditions of physical objects. Tippett is designing and creating physical versions of HoloGrid's monsters, and they'll then be scanned into the game utilizing the process. The idea is to give HoloGrid a look reminiscent of the classic films. "It's the exact same technique we used on The Force Awakens," says Tippett, who also worked on the holochess sequence in the most recent Star Wars.

As for the game itself, it's described as a digital card game in line with Hearthstone, but with the aforementioned special effects. One of the most compelling aspects of HoloGrid is its ambitions for augmented and virtual reality — though, at least initially, it will be a mobile game. The Kickstarter campaign is to fund a version of the game for iOS and Android. "This is our first step into a new world of AR gaming," says HappyGiant president Mike Levine, "and while we are launching it on mobile initially so everyone can play it, our long term vision is to bring it to emerging AR and VR platforms." No release date for HoloGrid has been announced yet.

• SourceHoloGrid: Monster Battle (Kickstarter)