Month: April 2010 (Page 1 of 2)

66 Letters: A German Psychothriller ARG

April 25, 2010 / Jane Doh

66letters
An online literary puzzle, 66 Letters,Â is a psychothriller alternate reality game opening in May. Players will collaborate and test their detective skills to investigate a cold case, and clues will offer a previewÂ for a new book that will soon be published by German publisher Bastei Lubbei.

66 Letters is the latest project of viral marketing experts, vm-people, whose most recent project was Die Zeit wird knapp [Time Is Running Out], promoting Rachel Wardâ€™s book Numbers. Vm-people is also behind the German-based Pirate Society as well asÂ Charlotte Is Becoming Real, which brought two American players to Germany for its grand finale.

Currently, visitors to the 66 Letters homepage are rerouted to the Folge dem Kaninchen [Follow the Rabbit] website, where they can register for updates for this game and for other projects from vm-people. All this activity has been well-met by the vibrant and active German ARG community, which has gelled around the German-language news blog ARG-Reporter and meets socially every month in Berlin. In the future, the Folge dem Kaninchen website will open up for a more international audience, but for now, the site is only in German.

On April 23rd, London Becomes the Game Board for Nike Grid

April 17, 2010 / Brandie Minchew

nikegrid UK runners will take to the streets in less than a week to compete with other runners across London in Nike’s new interactive street game, Nike Grid. TheÂ urban gameÂ will launch on April 23, 2010 at 8pm and will last 24 hours. No more, no less.

Nike is no stranger to developing interactive programs for runners. In 2006, Nike and Apple teamed up to produce Nike+iPod, a sports kit that records data over the course of a walk or run and allows the user to upload that data to the Nike+ website. Unlike Nike+iPod, Nike Grid does not require runners to possess any items of technology to track their run. Instead, the game uses payphones across the city of London as check-in points before and after each run. All runners need to play are their fastest shoes and a free player’s account with Nike Grid.

In order to play, runners must register at the Nike Grid website. Once registered, each runner receives a 4-digit game code that they will use to check in and out of each run at designated phone boxes. Maps will be available on the website to allow runners to prepare their routes and find the location of the phone boxes. Four maps have already been released: North, South, East, and West London. The Grid covers 40 postcodes, and runners can choose to run only in their own postcode, or they can steal others’ postcodes to rack up points.

Rules for running the Grid are posted on the Nike Grid website: no walking; no buses; don’t run through walls or walk on water; andÂ don’t even think about cheating! “The Grid will know,” says a comment on the Facebook page, in response to one question asking how Nike can keep people from claiming points after riding bikes or taking the bus between pay phones. “If we reveal how we know, people will try to get around it. It is never foolproof, but we have ways of monitoring,” states a follow-up comment.

Know Hope: Will Bluebird Lead to Paradise?

April 14, 2010 / Michael Andersen

bluebird When I checked my mail today, I found an envelope from Australia amidst the typical stack of bills, circulars, and coupons to Bed Bath & Beyond. Since I don’t typically receive correspondence from Oz, I snapped a few photographs before opening the letter.

Inside was a letter and an employee badge with an attached USB drive. Both the letter and the badge were emblazoned with the graphic of a blue bird with wings outstreched. On the stationery, I could make out the word “BLUEBIRD” printed underneath the bird. The letter stated,

Hi,
I need you to look after these for me.
Who knows what’s going to happen to Bluebird
over the next little while . . .
One thing I do know is I can’t let this
bird fly. I’ve got to get the word out.

The employee badge was for Kyle Vandercamp, badge #0004584 at Bluebird. Since the letter was signed “K.” and the attached USB Drive was named “KYLE,” I can only assume Mr. Vandercamp was the source of this message. Kyle has a personal blog, a Flickr stream, and assorted other social media pages.

The USB drive contained a single file: BB_KnowHope..mov (sic.), a video file purportedly created on April 7, 2010 at 4:19:46PM, yet somehow modified on April 7, 2010 at 4:05:50PM. You can view the video below.

What is Project Bluebird, and how will it help stop global warming? Why did Kyle Vandercamp want me to have this file? And will we have a chance to “know hope,” or is there truly “no hope?” At the moment, I only have questions. Hopefully, you can help find the answers.

Click Here for the discussion at Unfiction.

UPDATE: According to Kyle Vandecamp’s website, this is an alternate reality drama called Bluebird AR, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and supported by Current. More behind-the-scenes information will be available at ABC’s Bluebird AR page shortly.

Whimsical French ARG and Transmedia Experience Supernatural Oddities Redefines Normal in ARGs

April 13, 2010 / Jane Doh

faitsdiversparanormaux In February, freelance graphic designer JC DÃ©nariÃ© started documenting paranormal experiences in France on his videoblog, but heâ€™s been interested in the supernatural for 20 years, ever since his brother Fred disappeared mysteriously. In addition to writing an encyclopedia about aliens, demons, and other strange things, JCâ€™s findings have since been picked up by a production company eager to produce a reality TV mini-series called Faits Divers Paranormaux, or Supernatural Oddities. JCâ€™s findings in 26 short episodes will be broadcast Monday through Thursday evenings at 20:30 on Orangeâ€™s CinÃ©choc.

Encouraged by JCâ€™s investigations, since March, people all over France have been submitting their own experiences of the supernatural, in a kind of â€œparanormal urban hunt.â€ JC continues to delve deeper into the unnatural and the uncanny all around France, â€œassistedâ€ by his wife Muriel and his mother-in-law Simone (who is also on Facebook). By signing on to the Faits Divers Paranormaux site with a Facebook account, players can earn points, badges, and prizes as they take quizzes, submit content, and engage in the online community. Other features, including the â€œparanormal urban hunt,â€ encourage people to capture and share evidence of the supernatural using their mobile devices. Prizes include True Blood and Harry Potter DVDs and a chance to win a trip to a film festival in Deauville, France.

Primeval Evolved and Reservoir Hill Win 2010 International Digital Emmy Awards

April 12, 2010 / Michael Andersen

emmy Transmedia storytelling was well received at this year’s International Digital Emmy Awards.Â Primeval Evolved and Reservoir Hill received Emmys for their innovative storytelling, while Heroes creator and executive producer Tim Kring received this year’s Pioneer Award at the award show in Cannes.

This past year has been particularly goodÂ for Primeval Evolved developerÂ Hoodlum. In September, the Australian digital entertainment company took home a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy for its work on Dharma Wants You, the third alternate reality game for ABC’s hit dramaÂ LOST. Earlier tonight, Hoodlum added another Emmy to its growing collection, as the Primeval Evolved experienceÂ won the International Digital Emmy for “Best Digital Program: Fiction.” The campaign allowed players to join the Anomaly Research Centre (ARC) team from ITV’s drama Primeval.

UK residents can still experience the Primeval Evolved interactive drama, a series of ran concurrently with the third season of Primeval. Each chapter of Primeval Evolved is preceded by a recap of the previous episode of the television series, before allowing players to begin the adventure. In addition to a series of online games creating a framework for the story, the series featured Temple TV: In Living Connor, a series of videos filmed by series regular Connor Temple, played by Andrew Lee Potts.

ITV recently announced that Primeval has been picked up for two more seasons starting in 2011 on ITV1 and Watch. Congratulations to ITV, Hoodlum, and Impossible Pictures for their International Emmy win.

Congratulations also go out to Reservoir Hill for securing New Zealand’s first International Emmy. The interactive web series picked up an Emmy in the “Digital Program: Children & Young People” category. At the end of every Reservoir Hill episode, viewers had the opportunity to text in suggestions to influence the course of the story. They could also interact with the main character through weekly video blogs and through her Bebo page. New Zealand viewers can still enjoy the Reservoir Hill web series at TVNZ Ondemand.

Tim Kring receivedÂ the 2010Â Visionary Prize at the awards, honoring his contributions to the field of digital entertainment. International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences President and CEO Bruce Paisner noted, “Tim Kring is a masterful storyteller and the Heroes Evolution digital experience is the ultimate showcase for successfully integrating technology and content.” As the Visionary Prize recipient, Kring delivered a keynote address earlier today to MIPTV conference delegates.

Exercise Your Spirit of Adventure: Facebook’s First Soap Opera

April 10, 2010 / Jane Doh

spiritofadventure Helen Hobbes, forty-nine-year-old British homemaker, has a quiet and charmed life with her husband of twenty-eight years Bruce and two grandchildren, but she is restless and yearning for excitement beyond deciding what to make for dinner. While reading a second-hand copy of Madame Bovary, Helen discovers three worn diary pages inside, narrating what might have been a downed airman’s last days in the desert. Overtaken by her curiosity, Helen leaves everything behind and embarks on a worldwide journey to uncover the airman’s fate in Spirit of Adventure.

A “visual novel” presented through a Facebook app, Spirit of Adventure combines an artful and engaging narrative with embedded gameplay through puzzles and riddles. Spirit of Adventure is created by “social storytellers” nDreams, the makers of the wildly successful and innovative Xi, the first console-based alternate reality game that brought over 5 million players into a virtual world on Playstation Home and out on the streets worldwide. nDreams is also behind the currently running game, Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life, in which players help the Formula 1 driver recover stolen artwork from around the world.

Each Thursday, a new chapter in Helen’s story unfolds, as she travels around the world in search of the airman’s identity. Every person Helen meets along the way is an entrÃ©e into another life, another story, and sometimes another puzzle that brings in an otherwise marginal character deeper into the story. While solving puzzles and progressing in the plot, players collect mementos of Helen’s journey, such as a matchbook from a Paris cafe or a little plastic rhino. Perhaps an experiment in monetizing storytelling, players can subscribe to further content from the airman’s point-of-view, but otherwise Spirit of Adventure is free to play. Slated for twenty-six weeks, Spirit of Adventure is currently in on its sixth week.