Take a picture, then walk into it, in this must-see game tech experiment

(Image credit: Matt Stark)

Look, before I even talk about this, just watch the video: 

Indie Developer Matt Stark has tweeted a video of his idea for a game on twitter. It’s what he’s callling the “Polaroid Effect,” after the once-ubiquitous instant cameras. The experimental game mechanic allows a player to take a picture of a slice of environment using a camera, then place the instant-camera picture into the world as a piece of interactive environment—physically altering the world around them into a surrealist photo collage.  He first posted the concept in November 2019, but was then unsure if what he has done now was even possible. “The effect is purely visual and the player can’t physically interact with it,” he said at the time. It’s clear now that Stark’s development has come pretty far. Stark hasn’t said what kind of game he’s interested in making with the concept, but with some 50k retweets and 150k likes on his concept the idea definitely shows promise. 

When Portal first came out a lot of people were absolutely boggled by the ability to look through the portals and see what’s on the other side. That’s pretty much how I feel about this. I'll politely remind you that game design students thought up the primary mechanics for Portal. Matt Stark is a game design student. His released game project, so far,  is a free puzzle game on the Android Store. 

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Latest in Games
Dean Hall at GDC 2025.
Outer space inspired DayZ's Dean Hall to become a modder and game developer, and now he's making a Kerbal successor called Kitten Space Agency
Seekers of Skyveil screenshot
Seekers of Skyveil, the MOBA—extraction shooter mashup, is shutting down less than a month after release: ‘We have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end’
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth money farm - Super Crazy Delivery
Like a Dragon series director sums up why sidequests are essential to a great RPG with a single metaphor: 'a good main dish alone will not earn you a Michelin star'
Image of a sweetroll with a candle in it
Bethesda marks Oblivion's 19th with a sweetroll, a candle, and absolutely no happy birthday gift for fans eager for the still-unannounced remaster
One of Repo's player characters, resembling a yellow pedal bin with googly eyes, encounters a skeletal, open mouthed face with glowing yellow eyes.
REPO dev says it wasn’t actually inspired by Lethal Company, and started as a singleplayer cleaning game: ‘It was nice, but far from what REPO is now’
Destiny 2: Season of Plunder promo image.
'We made one big mistake': Destiny 2 developer reveals how a small team dedicated to player retention led to a 20 hour server outage and character rollback
Latest in News
Split Fiction screenshot
Split Fiction is reportedly at the center of a bidding war for its movie rights
Seekers of Skyveil screenshot
Seekers of Skyveil, the MOBA—extraction shooter mashup, is shutting down less than a month after release: ‘We have no choice but to bring this short journey to an end’
Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell is hooked on Stalker 2 and once he's got the fourth ending (!) will 'figure out what I'm going to play next'
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth money farm - Super Crazy Delivery
Like a Dragon series director sums up why sidequests are essential to a great RPG with a single metaphor: 'a good main dish alone will not earn you a Michelin star'
Valve logo with a man with a steam valve for an eye.
Valve's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew, who 'used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator… he sent me a lovely thank you note'
Image of a sweetroll with a candle in it
Bethesda marks Oblivion's 19th with a sweetroll, a candle, and absolutely no happy birthday gift for fans eager for the still-unannounced remaster