News: Magic Leap Jumps into the Star Wars Universe with Release of Project Porg App

Magic Leap Jumps into the Star Wars Universe with Release of Project Porg App

After some social media teasing, the Star Wars universe's Magic Leap debut has finally arrived.

On Tuesday, Magic Leap announced the release of Star Wars: Project Prog, which is available for free via Magic Leap World.

Image by ILMxLAB/YouTube

In addition, ILMxLAB, the immersive entertainment division of Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm, released a behind-the-scenes vignette that gives some insight into the development of the game along with a first look at some footage from the game.

"We're trying to create a whole new era of living stories," said Vicki Dobbs Beck, executive-in-charge at ILMxLAB, in the video. "One of the things that we felt was most compelling was this idea of character companions. You actually develop a relationship with a character over time."

Image by ILMxLAB/YouTube

With some on-screen assistance via a holographic message from C-3PO, the game makes players the adoptive parents of a group of porgs. Players can feed the creatures and entertain them with toys, including a plush Chewbacca doll, and a laser pointer. With Magic Leap's spatial computing capabilities, the porgs can jump on furniture as well.

"One day, you find out one aspect of their personality and you go through their life cycle over the course of time," said Susan Greenhow, producer for ILMxLAB.

In other words, it's like raising a virtual pet. But does that mean that one day our porgs will die?! What's the average lifespan of porg?! But I digress.

Image by ILMxLAB/YouTube

The video also includes footage of some of ILMxLAB's other immersive projects, including the original "Lost Droids" test footage released in 2016, as well as some previously unseen footage from the team's augmented reality experiments.

In this newer clip, a life-sized speeder and droid appears in the foreground, with a wall opening up in the background showing the landscape of Hoth's perpetual winter environment and then an avalanche of snowy boulders falling down upon the scene from above.

Image by ILMxLAB/YouTube

However, among the experiments conducted by the team, Project Porg is the one that evolved towards production as an app for the Magic Leap One. The game was originally announced alongside Magic Leap's inaugural developers conference, LEAP Conference, last October.

So is this the app that will push the Magic Leap One from developer device to mainstream must-have device? Star Wars is certainly one of those franchises where fans will throw down some serious coin, so perhaps the price tag of $2,295 is suddenly a small price to pay to live the life of a galaxy far, far away in one's own living room.

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Cover image via ILMxLAB/YouTube

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