Ogmento, a company that sees the future of gaming rooted in "augmented reality," (games that combine the real word with virtual worlds) is shoring up its ranks with three video game industry veterans. The company announced today that it has hired three people that have collectively worked for such companies as Looking Glass, Pandemic, Sony Online, Electronic Arts Mobile, Alchemic Productions, and more. The three new hires are Rick Ernst, who will serve as lead game designer; Tim Hernandez, who has been named Director of Production; and James Chung who has signed on as the company's new Art Director.
Rick Ernst is a 15 year veteran of the video games industry having worked for such companies as Looking Glass, Pandemic and Sony Online, and independently as a contractor and consultant. He is also the co-founder of Alchemic Productions in Los Angeles, a production company that works with artists, film makers and authors.
Tim Hernandez brings over six years of mobile gaming expereince to the table and has worked on such franchises as Spider-Man, X-Men, The Sims, Madden NFL Football and Need for Speed. Most recently he worked at Electronic Arts Mobile where he served as the Development Director of the Future Technologies team.
Finally, James Chung has worked on top-selling game titles as an Artist and Art Director. His experience includes concept art, character design, and storyboarding for the film and animation industry as well.
No doubt these three will attempt help the company create augmented reality games that don't suck. The company's first title, "Put Aa Spell,' is a spelling game for iPhone featuring a cute Panda that you can interact with. The gameplay is layered over the real environment, which is brought into the game using the iPhone's built-in camera. While the gameplay is pretty simplistic in its current stage of development it is certainly interesting. Of course Sony has been doing AR games like Eye of Judgment and all of its crazy EyeToy games for years, so it will be interesting to see how Ogmento plans to advance the field..
