Nevermind video game now uses Apple Watch to check players' heart rates
Nevermind, the video game for Windows, Mac, Xbox One, and Oculus Rift, first launched towards the end of last year and gained some renown for using “biofeedback devices” to sense how scared players are during gameplay. Now, the Apple Watch is supported as one such biofeedback device, with Nevermind sourcing heart rate data from players’ wrists in order to alter how the game unfolds.
In release notes on Tuesday, Nevermind developers Flying Mollusk also said the game supports “emotion-sensing software.” With this program, a webcam monitors faces for changes in facial expressions and attempts to interpret these as emotion. The Apple Watch complements the emotional switches with physiology.
Through keeping a check on users’ heart rates, watchOS is indeed able to guess with some accuracy when owners of the device are feeling anxious or stressed. In Nevermind, however, these signs of higher stress levels among players translate into tougher, more challenging, and more stress-inducing gameplay.
Of course, this is just the beginning of how the Apple Watch can hook into games in order to enhance the experience on offer, and Nevermind’s implementation could hopefully pave the way for more. If the future of gaming is indeed heading towards creating more immersive experiences for players (made possible, in particular, through the advent of virtual reality gaming), then utilizing biofeedback seems like a natural progression for developers to make.
And with the Apple Watch on more wrists than ever before, Cupertino’s smartwatch seems like the perfect biofeedback device to tap into. No pun intended.