The developers at Zyro Games love drones and wanted to be able to more fully interact with drones in a team setting. The company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund final prototype rounds and game development for their drone ball.
Zyro works with an app to constrain the drone within a field size specified by the user. Users can swing or pass the drone depending on the game. Badminton, Frisbee, soccer and hockey games are currently available in the app for gamers to use, along with user specified games.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zyro/zyrotm-droneball
This system comes with a Zyro DroneBall and a Zyro Wand expected to ship in June 2015 for $449, and users can also order more remotes to expand the starter sets. Some of the remotes shown in the Kickstarter video are attached to badminton racquets and demonstrate the concepts of swinging or passing the DroneBall. Seeing the DroneBall bounce against virtual walls as it reaches the edges of its playing field is definitely cool.
Zyro is very interested in bringing on game developers and creating new games and new ways to use the drone. Just like a red playground ball can be used for catch, kickball, dodgeball or soccer the team hopes that people will be able to think of new and exciting ways to use the DroneBall.
Using a drone as the centerpiece of a sport is totally new to me but Zyro says they are one of the first in the emerging industry of drone gaming. This is an awesome extension of Wii or Kinect technology but bringing a fully physical experience to the user. I’ve seen kids sitting in bean bag chairs or hanging upside down off of the sofa while operating the Wii remotes. Zyro looks like an experience that will require users to get up, go outside and move around.