Niantic launches tool that allows any player to add locations for ar games

Gamemaker Niantic has released a tool that allows players to provide their own locations for the company’s location-based games. This concerns, for example, the Pokéstops in Pokémon Go.

The tool is called Wayfarer. Anyone can sign up to use the tool. This has to be done with the same Google or Facebook account with which they also play Niantic games. Niantic lets players add locations themselves, as well as review or edit locations recommended by other players.

Niantic uses special locations in users’ real environments as virtual locations in the games. This can be, for example, works of art or special buildings. An example of such places in games are the Pokéstops and Gyms in Pokémon Go, or Inns and Taverns in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The company uses the same locations for every ar game, but they are all from the original Niantic game Ingress. Locations for Pokémon Go and Harry Potter were also only able to add spots through the Ingress tool Operation Portal Recon. Wayfarer is based on that technology.

For now, only a select group of users can access the tool. For the time being, these are also only players with an Ingress account. In the future, however, Pokémon GO players will also be able to use it. That should be done before the end of the year.