Pantomime Bug Farm

Pantomime is a new kind of augmented reality that recruits the devices we're surrounded with every day into virtual worlds.  Their screens become panes of glass, portals that let us see in.  Our tablets and phones become gyro accurate 3D paddles that let us reach in and interact. We can turn in every direction and see the virtual worlds through them, without a headset or special glasses.  We can see our nimble virtual hands in the world as they interact. We can change Scenes, and even Teleport into shared worlds over WiFi.

The launch scene is Bug Farm. Your device is balanced on a tabletop that's teeming with bugs! Fire Ants, Spiders, Scorpions and Praying Mantises come after you across the table in immersive 3D. They're aggressive but harmless. You can knock them back with balls by tapping the screen, and walk or skate away, but unless you distract them with a Bait Ball, push or knock them off the table – they'll keep coming. If they get close enough, you can even squish them under your iPad or iPhone!

BALANCE, TUMBLE AND WALK
Without touching the screen you can balance, tumble, and walk your iPad or iPhone realistically through the virtual world. Your device remains balanced on the virtual table as you turn in any direction to look around, and you'll see the fingers of your virtual hand guiding it.

SPIN AND SKATE
Stroke the screen with one finger to Skate through the virtual world, or twist with two fingers to Spin around in it.

PADDLE
To lift your iPad or iPhone as a paddle, grab it by the edge with a thumb pressed against the screen. When your other virtual hand lets go, you can swing from your wrist to paddle in any direction.

MAIN MENU
To bring up the main Menu in any virtual world, do a Long Press on the center of the screen. The Menu lets you choose a Scene, adjust Settings and Throwables, Connect with other players on the WiFi network, and more. To dismiss the Menu, tap the center again: Back to Virtual World.

Bug Farm is just one scene in a larger Pantomime Playground, so you can bring in all sorts of new objects. Throw spiders on friends – or roll bowling balls at scorpions in the Bug Farm scene!

PLAYGROUND SCENES
• Bug Farm - defend against bugs, or feed them to grow giant ones
• Gravity Dispenser – delicate Gravity Ampules change the scene's gravity to Earth, Moon, or No Gravity when cracked
• Bowling Lane with pin setter
• Dominos – a machine is placing dominos in a circle.  Reach in with your tablet or phone and play. Can you start a chain reaction?
• Touch Help - shows how to reach in, move and play using a tablet or phone
• Keyboard Help – interact using using a computer or device with a keyboard

THROWABLES – Choose from over a dozen kinds of objects to toss or place into 3D worlds -- from balls, dice and dominos, to sticky dirt and asteroids that defy gravity. And Throwables have helpful built-in physics – so in landscape, when you tap a Domino you gently place it, while a Bowling Ball automatically rolls forward.

TELEPORT OVER WiFi
If you have more than one device on your WiFi network running Pantomime Playground, they can join the same virtual world and play together! Select Connect from the main menu; then select a device you want to connect to from the list, or enter its address; and then tap Teleport.

TELEPORT WITH MACS!
Pantomime Bug Farm and Playground are a revolutionary networked suite of apps that runs across iOS and Mac computers. It's more than twice amazing to see into shared Pantomime worlds with a MacBook, iMac or other Mac over WiFi!

Pantomime Bug Farm is available now in the Mac App Store at http://appstore.com/mac/pantomimebugfarm.

Elements of Pantomime Playground and Bug Squish are protected by patents such as US Patent 8,872,854.