What Makes Pokemon GO… Go? Learn In Our New Tutorial

The mobile game Pokemon GO has exploded in popularity—even surpassing Twitter in terms of users and adding 12 billion dollars to Nintendo’s market value. In fact, it’s not unlikely that you have the app downloaded on your phone and the mere mention of it is making you want to get back to “catching them all.” But have you ever stopped to wonder what makes Pokemon GO… go? What sort of technology is going on beneath the hood that allows Nintendo to make such an innovative and addictive game? And how can you harness it to create your own AR experiences?

Do these questions burn in your mind like the flame on Charmander’s tail or jolt you to attention like an electric shock from Pikachu?

If so, we have the lesson for you: “Learn How To Make Pokemon GO,” our free tutorial on building Augmented Reality (AR) apps.

In this two-hour crash course, you’ll learn you to:

• Built a basic iOS app that allows players to move through an augmented reality “treasure” hunt—just like Pokemon GO, but instead of catching Pokemon, you’ll be adding your own objects and creatures (or whatever else you come up with!) for players to find.
• Leverage the iOS SDK to implement features like location tracking, video overlays, and augmented data.
• Bury your own treasures in Google Firebase and allow other players to discover them.
• Create a rich world on top of reality with a live camera preview—as players view their surroundings through the iPhone camera, treasures will appear right in front of them. Here’s how that might look once you add your own—meet one of ours, “Hairy Harry,” who has been hanging around the Flatiron School offices recently:

“Rawr.”

While we can’t guarantee that your AR iOS app will overtake Pokemon GO as the most popular mobile game ever, we here at Flatiron School are excited to see what you build with your new iOS skills. You can sign up for the free tutorial below:

And when you’re ready to take your iOS skills to the next level, check out our NYC iOS Developer Program as well as our new online Swift course (coming soon!).