Family-friendly board games to go big into AR

Fun for the family or parties, the favorite drawing game Pictionary is going high tech this year.

In June, Mattel is expected to introduce an Augmented Reality version of the popular game. Once, earthlings used paper to draw pictures as clues for people to guess a secret word. With the AR version, as you might expect, the paper is gone. Instead, players use a wand to draw in the air and the image appears on their phone, tablet or smart TV screen.

And, no, the player drawing in the air can’t see what they are drawing, which judging by most Pictionary games, won’t make hints any worse than they are on paper.

Many AR games are already on the market for mobile phones but this is one of the few aimed at the family/party group market where being in the same room with other gamers is important.

According to Cnet.com, we will soon be seeing AR versions of Clue, The Game of Life, and others.