Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 4 of 37)

Jonathan Waite was an innocent lurker when The Beast hit the Internet in 2001. From his temporary residence in Jeon Ju, South Korea, he was immediately captivated by the lush environment that had been laid out before his feet. Moving back to his hometown (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) in July of the same year, Jonathan continued to be involved in the burdgeoning genre of Alternate Reality Gaming, getting into Plexata and finding a voice on the forums dedicated to the game. Once Lockjaw hit in 2002, there was no looking back. Jonathan adopted the alias 'jamesi', started a fansite called GuysGuise, and the rest is history.
Jonathan can currently be found as an administrator on Unfiction's forums, as well as co-hosting the ARG Netcast audio show. In the past, he has been involved with Smirkbox, a humor site that focuses on the realm of ARGs, as well as actively creating and maintaining JMX, a puzzle trail website that is currently working (yes, still) on a second run.

As a freelance developer and consultant, Jonathan has worked on such games as Ocular Effect (for Fallen on ABC family), Reach the Future (aka Holomove, for Microsoft), Enitech Labs (for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX) and Monster Hunter Club (for The Host by Magnolia Films). He is happily married and has two wonderful daughters.

You don’t know J.A.C.K.

February 7, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

As we continue to play catch-up from the past two weeks of email, we’re intrigued by a new campaign coming from Brazil. According to tipster Alessandra, there’s a new ARG out there just waiting to be had called Follow Your Instinct 2.O: J.A.C.K. We must have missed the original FYI ARG, launched in 2006 to coincide with the release of Brazilian band Mindflow’s Mind Over Body. However, we discovered the band’s Facebook group that told us the first game involved an imaginary serial killer, and based on what Alessandra has told us, this sequel begins as “not even the strongest bars could stop his never ending talent of bringing fear and his unattainable thirst for evil.”

In this game, which can be played at the band’s web site, players take on the role of a detective looking for clues and evidence exposing an ominous-sounding Destructive Device which is supposedly hidden inside Mindflow’s upcoming album of the same name. Now, how this has come to be isn’t clear, but in the game tip, Alessandra states that the “leads could be anywhere: music, websites, booklets, photos, videos.” How very cross-media!

The Flash-based web site is very slick and well-designed, and the music is catchy enough to leave playing in the background as you analyze the clues. For players who need a bit of a head start in getting into the process, there’s an instructional YouTube video set up to help make sense of the game. The most recent blog post from J.A.C.K. was a few days ago, so it appears that the game is in full swing. And even though this game originates in Brazil, there are English and Portuguese versions of the content, so those of us in English-speaking countries can jump right into the mix.

Do you have what it takes to capture J.A.C.K. and prevent the Destructive Device from doing damage? Register at the web site and get started today!

TNT launches “episodic Flash game” for Leverage

February 7, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

We received a game tip early in January from the fine folks at TNT TV regarding their new original series Leverage. According to Seth Miller, the Senior Manager of Digital Partnerships at the network, “[t]he games take elements and storylines of from the show, add on a layer of a 3D virtual headquarters and features a sweepstakes to help the Leverage team recover some stolen money.” Miller admits that he doesn’t know if this “qualifies as a true ARG” so let’s have our readers be the judges of that! You can access the game at LeverageHQ.com and please, let us know in our comments how you feel about the campaign.

Leverage is a con series in reverse, in which a group of “specialists” take on the corrupt people and companies that plague our society in a sort of modern-day Robin Hood theme. It stars Timothy Hutton and can be seen Tuesdays at 10/9c on TNT, or you can watch full episodes on the TNT website (U.S. visitors only, we assume).

Get Intimate with Intimation

February 7, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

It wasn’t too long ago that discussion at the ARG Netcast included a look at The Way Their World Ended, a game that launched through a Twitter account on Christmas day of 2008. At the beginning, a few of the players that followed Intimation on Twitter were discouraged by the flood of cryptic updates to the account, but once the messages were decoded, the game began dropping references to the Halo universe.

In the past week, there have been more discoveries which lead at least one player to believe that this game’s narrative takes place, “after the events of ILB, since this AI knows about ‘the legendary Melissa.'” ILB, for those who may not know, is short for I Love Bees, the massively popular alternate reality game from 2004 which was a promotion for Halo 2. There have also been references to material discovered through the Iris ARG, which Bungie/Microsoft put together for the release of Halo 3.

So, is it an official tie-in to some sort of Halo product, or a fan creation? We’ve sent off an email to Bungie to see what they have to say, and we’ll update once we get a response. In the meantime, if you’ve been waiting for something to fill the void until Halo Wars hits store shelves, this may be just the thing.

In-game YouTube account
Unfiction Forum thread

Puppetmasters wanted, Geppetto need not apply

January 27, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

job_opportunity Our roving reporters regularly scan the blogs and news sources that make up our digital world, and this morning, staffers Marie Lamb and Michael Andersen found two unique opportunities for aspiring game designers in Los Angeles and New York City. If you are someone who wishes to work in the exciting field of alternate reality game creation, these might be a stepping stone in the right direction!

First up, a craigslist ad from a company called Urban Interactive, who is advertising for an “Alternate Reality Game Writer for iPhone (NYC).” The ad talks about a new product called Urban Sleuth, which is described as, “a platform that allows anyone to create alternate reality games, ranging from simple treasure hunts to full-blown storytelling adventures that incorporate improv actors, local merchants, flash mobs, etc.” It also reveals that a new ARG will be launching in March called The Analog Resistance, and lists the cities of Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago as locales affected by the game. Specifically, they need help writing missions for events taking place in Manhattan, and the ad suggests that owning an iPhone or iPod Touch would be helpful.

The ad triggered a spark of a memory for me, and as I looked back in my cluttered inbox, I did find a game tip from last month that we weren’t able to follow up on which relates to this ad. The email, from Nick Tommarello, further describes The Analog Resistance this way: “It’s the ‘Amazing Race’ meets The Game (with Michael Douglas).” Sounds altogether cool and wonderful!

The second job opportunity isn’t a paying position, but an internship at Studio 33 in Los Angeles, according to this posting at internweb.com. There are quite a few positions available to those who wish to intern at the start-up, including Production Office Management, Web Series production, Alternate Reality Game production, Website Development and Maintenance, Sponsorship & Advertising and Marketing. The hours are flexible, and students may be able to use this for college credit. The start date is listed as “immediately” and the internship runs to the end of April, 2009.

So what are you waiting for — get out there and make a great game!

Game Preview: The Big Plot

January 26, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

thebigplot So many game tips, so little time! We’ve seen a steady stream of email come in through our contact form this past week, and within the tips comes word of The Big Plot. While it doesn’t appear to have launched yet, we did look through the trailhead web site and a press release for interesting bits, and here’s the summary:

The story will be “dispersed in more than seven cities, across several media platforms and among a
cluster of actors.”
The game will utilize many recognizable social networking sites, including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, BlogSpot, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. Yes, even LinkedIn.
The game designer is one Paulo Cirio, and in the release he is describing this “multi-platform, multi-[channel] and cross-media form of storytelling” as “Recombinant Fiction.” Great, just what we need, another label to remember. But I digress.
The narrative will be a “romantic spy-story” featuring four key characters: Mark Savin, a Russian pilot; Brian Steiger, a trained psychologist; Vanessa Pinney, a Canadian journalist; and Paul Hampel, the spy and businessman from parts unknown.
Keeping track of the game might be easier than having to check up on characters through their various social site profiles — there are many RSS feeds available for subscribers, including character-specific feeds.
The content on the site is covered under a Creative Commons license, which allows for the sharing and remixing of content so as long as the end result is attributed to the source material. Sounds like user-generated heaven!

If there’s a clear indication as to when the game will start, I couldn’t find one, so I guess it’s wait and see, Good thing there’s that handy RSS feed to help us keep track of when the game goes live!

This just in – Help Find Jane

January 21, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

findjane_logo

For those of you in a helping mood, head over to Help Find Jane, which appears to be a site dedicated to — wait for it — assisting in the efforts to find Jane Henry. While we don’t know if Jane is an attractive brunette or not (it’s hard to tell from the silhouette), she is a damsel in distress just waiting for an ARGonaut to rush in and save the day. Notice the odd capitalization in the text of the web site, which would have surely tipped us off that this was an alternate reality game and not a real-life search for a missing person had the URL itself not contained the letters arg.

Keep us posted as to whether or not Ms. Henry turns up, okay?