Eye Opener

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Cameron Howard crowdfunded Third Eye on a whim. He didn’t really believe a dev team with no industry experience could deliver on an “immersive Augmented Reality, Altered Reality Game for mobile platforms.” If they managed somehow, he’d get a cool game out of it.Whenthey failed, he’d be out the price of a couple hamburgers and have a story to tell. But Third Eye did deliver. Now Cam, his ex-girlfriend Lena, and their friends and rivals around the world are about to discover just what they’ve backed themselves into.Third Eye is graphically stunning. Technologically mindblowing. Irresistibly addictive. So why does the interface for the app itself look like it was cobbled together on a spreadsheet? In 1993? And why does everything it shows feel soreal? Updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Twenty bonus chapters available onPatreon!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2023
Author: Joshua Cole

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 976
Views: 516,610

What readers say about Eye Opener

“I can't quite place it, but Eye Opener is a joy to read: the relationships and interactions are brutally, painfully realistic; the main character is skilled and intelligent but not hamfistedly so; the mystery aspect is tantalizing. Don't sleep on this, even…”
oldmidgetwillowRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Eye Opener is a very interesting read. It’s a story about a couple of friends playing an Augmented Reality/Alternate Reality game that they helped crowdfund. The interesting thing is that there are so many mysterious elements about the game that both the ch…”
Brandon DeeRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

oldmidgetwillowRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I can't quite place it, but Eye Opener is a joy to read: the relationships and interactions are brutally, painfully realistic; the main character is skilled and intelligent but not hamfistedly so; the mystery aspect is tantalizing. Don't sleep on this, even if there isn't much overt action in the first few chapters.
Brandon DeeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Eye Opener is a very interesting read. It’s a story about a couple of friends playing an Augmented Reality/Alternate Reality game that they helped crowdfund. The interesting thing is that there are so many mysterious elements about the game that both the characters and the readers are left wondering how it all works and why the game was created. Is it just a game or is there something more hiding beneath the surface?I didn’t notice any grammatical issues and the writing style is very pleasant. The author does a great job of keeping you guessing about the story. Some people might feel like the pacing could be faster, but I like that the author is taking time to fully bring us into this world.Another strength of this story is the characters. The dynamic between the two main characters is a lot of fun. Learning more about their history together and the reasons why they act the way that they do has gotten me invested in them. The supporting characters also seem to be well developed so far. They feel like real people instead of just plot devices.Overall, it’s an intriguing mystery and I think that you won’t regret giving this story a try.
HansworthRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I’ve never read a story that uses an Augmented Reality game to blend reality and fantasy quite like this. Usually it’s a VRMMO where the fantasy and reality are separate or a system apocalypse where fantasy becomes reality. At the start, the game is seen as mundane so there’s a focus on contemporary slice of life to flesh out the characters. Speaking of characters, they’re written to be so lifelike that these nerds could pop out of my screen as far as I know. Eventually it becomes clear that the game is not so mundane thus the mystery begins to materialize even further.Some other reviews have compared this to Super Supportive and I completely agree. The pacing interspersed with a lot of SoL, how the characters interact, and the slowly unraveling mystery of the power system really does remind of it. I’d put this story in the same vein as SupSup but with more mature topics and 100x more nerdy references.
Kryptos GraphosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Still early on...but it reads great. Characters are good and interesting. Dialogue doesn't feel stifled and flows very well. The mystery of seemingly abandoned kickstarter game haunts our cast and supposedly hundreds other people who got suckered into throwing away their money, but if anything I am kinda envious of their early access. I want to cry magic and witchcraft but our characters are trying to be a bit more rational... doesn't seem to help them any so I'll keep screaming 'witchcraft!'...
As i said...early on but damn I am interested to see what happens next.
You should definitely check it out.
LelloRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I first saw this story a while ago, I looked at the nice artful cover, I read the description, it looked and sounded different but in a way that I didn't understand... But anyway it wasn't a litrpg high fantasy progression time loop regression OP Mc so at the time I didn't read it and I soon forgot about it.
After some time I saw the Ad for this story and again the artful cover draw me in, this time my taste had oversaturated of the usual RR experience so I gave it a try...3 days of non stop binge reading and I have to say this story is one the best on the site it grabs you and doesn't let go. Relationship, good old mystery, fun, adventure, MEMES (and maybe magic, who knows😉). It such a unique and refreshing story that you never know what is gonna happen.
Now I can realize that the whole " it can't be magic it's all in my head" can feel a little stretched out by some, but not really if you think about it, these are normal people, not a Korean bullied reincarnated all knowing teenager. It takes some time for people to realize something like magic could exist!
Good story 5/5.
OmniextRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Apparently, I've never actually made a review for this. So here I am, making one because it deserves one. Multiple.
Eye Opener is a story about a group of people (mostly Cameron and Lena) playing a seeming AR game, Third Eye, that they'd joined in to crowdfund years prior. They find out that the Augmented part of AR is much more literal then they thought it was, because it actually seems to be affecting the real world. Queue mystery, being a part of an early game community, relationships, etc etc, I'm not describing this very well, go read it.
Admittedly, I'm here mostly for the mystery and character moments.
Oh, and uh. The use of the term 'mobile progression fantasy' might be misleading for people who expect a progression fantasy, as in getting stronger and such. It happens, but it's not really how it's typically done and it's not the focus.
STYLE: 5/5
The pacing works fantastically for what it does and what I enjoy from it- characters get their moments of growth and the mystery uncovering gets to happen in a way that feels natural and not at all forced. I do need to mention that it is slower than I usually read and that might throw a lot of people off.
STORY: 5/5
Great stuff. We're right beside Cam and Lena as they and the gang are figuring out everything, as they grow as characters, and as they make questionable financial decisions in the face of everything.
GRAMMAR: 5/5
I don't remember anything, so the mistakes were either non-existent or so small that I don't remember them.
CHARACTER: 5/5
Every character gets their own voice, a lot of them get the chance to grow as well, from Cam and Lena, to less relevant characters that I won't mention because spoilers go read it. The point is, you won't be seeing any characters that are only described by the MC, or are otherwise two dimensional.
RoseofgreenestblueRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I came in expecting a few chapters of wacky setup/exposition and then a transition to your average LitRPG novel. Instead I got a slow burn mystery(?) with enough clues to make assumptions with but not enough to confirm them. I don't know what spin this book will actually take, but I guess I'm along for the ride.
Style: I often feel like I'm reading a series of messages between characters rather than a organic interaction in real space. More scene setting might help immersion.
Story: Kinda confusing. Like I noted above, it wasn't what I thought it was, so I'm not sure how to judge it. Is it a mystery? Is it a horror? Is it a really long set up for a series of brutal death matches? I don't know enough yet.
Characters: Likeable enough. They lack depth as of yet, which might just be the small number of chapters so far. The interaction is believable, and gets across the feeling of shared history well. Kudos to pineapple on pizza.
Grammar: It's solid, I didn't notice anything wrong.
Zero747Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story, and especially its characters are masterfully written. Every character is a person, and no one’s without flaw.You can feel the emotional tension and fragility of Cam and Lena’s whole situation, you can feel the the unsettling nature of exploring an abandoned building in the dark, and you can feel that pull to know more.Echoing the tagline, how does it all feel so real?
milkman7121Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This fic is one of the most believable system style stories I’ve had the pleasure of reading. And beyond that, forget the magic, forget the implausible delivery speeds and excellent graphics, I would stan a kickstarter that just had a plausible pitch of an open-world ARG. The very bones of the story are some of the best I’ve seen, and it’s so, so much more than just bones. Read it or live in endless regret of what might have been.
AlsoJohnRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It can get as good as this. I doubt it can get better here. Back story? ✅ Geek romance that rings true? ✅ VR lapping over into urban fantasy? ✅ Story telling that doesn't insecure or over confident? ✅
This is a "what where you reading when the genre grew up?" Moment