Anticipating the premiere of “The House of the Dragon,” which will debut on August 21, HBO Max launched House of the Dragon: DracARys, the official augmented reality app for the series. With the app, fans will be able to “incubate” and raise their own virtual dragons at home. Each dragon will be unique to its user and, as it grows, will develop its own appearance and temperament driven by its guardian’s interactions with it, based on the tradition of George R.R. Martin’s world.
Photo: Courtesy of the press
Users will also learn Valyrian words from the series to command their dragon through a custom voice recognition system. Dragons will grow to enormous size, reaching developmental milestones on their way to full adulthood, where they will be able to travel the world for other users around the world to see and interact with. The platform’s marketing and digital innovation teams collaborated with The Mill’s team of artists, engineers, technicians and strategists to develop the app from the ground up, using the Unity game engine and Niantic’s Lightship technology, with an immersive sound design from London’s Factory studio.
“We’ve created the most personalized and responsive virtual creature that ever existed on your phone, brought to life with the latest augmented reality technology,” Victor Pineiro, Director of Digital Innovation at HBO Max, said in a statement. House of the Dragon: DracARys” first launched exclusively on July 20 at San Diego Comic-Con for attendees of the immersive guided experience “House of the Dragon: The Dragon’s Den.”
