Category: Features (Page 18 of 37)

Tim Kring and The Company P Team Up to Form a Conspiracy for Good

June 14, 2010 / Michael Andersen

In the summer of 2008, Tim Kring and Christopher Sandberg were discussing the future of transmedia and community-based entertainment, standing on top of Isaac Mendez’ iconic post-apocalyptic tableau painted on the floor of the Heroes soundstage. As a result of that conversation, The Company P signed on to help produceÂ Conspiracy for Good, a large-scale movement with alternate reality gaming elements. Â Kring had previously pitched the concept forÂ Conspiracy for Good to Nokia.Â The movement will play out “across both traditional media and new media platforms including smart mobile devices, game consoles, tablets, and PCs.”Â Â At the heart of the experience is a locative event that will play out over the course of three weeks in London starting in mid-July and running until August 7th.Â Â According to Kring, this isÂ a greatÂ week to join in with the action, as “the narrative aspect really gets cooking as far as meeting key characters and key figures.Â A lot of the smoke that’s surrounding it will start to lift in the next few days.”

Conspiracy for Good firstÂ launched in May with a series of videos featuring celebrities ranging from JJ Abrams to Ringo Starr declaring “I am not a member.” Later in the month, the site hosting the videos redirected to the game’s main portal at Conspiracy for Good. Savvy players discovered a puzzle-locked allegory about Lord Magpie and his efforts to silence the songbirds. One of the puzzles introduced Blackwell Briggs, a global company seeking to increase surveillance by supercharging existing CCTV networks and introducing legislation to subvert mobile networks to track citizens. The Conspiracy for Good leaked the footage to The Pirate Bay, and spokeswoman Ann Marie Calhoun posted a re-edit of the video, revealing a different side to the company. Shortly after posting the video, Calhoun went missing and The Pirate Bay received a notice from Blackwell Briggs requesting that the tracker be removed. Further hints at the overarching story emerged by playing Exclusion, a free game for Nokia phonesÂ that includes unlockableÂ codes that lead to additional pieces of information on Babbage, a website discovered through Exclusion. Nokia partnered with Kring and The Company P to launch the project, and will release a series of games expanding on Exclusion to advance the narrative.

Six to Start Makes a Game Out of Wired UK Issue

June 1, 2010 / Jane Doh

Wired UK has teamed up with alternate reality game designers Six to Start, creators of the 2010 SXSW Best Game Award winner Smokescreen, to make this month’s issue of Wired UK a platform for a transmedia game contest. Six to Start’s immersive transmedia games have been widely recognized for high-quality storytelling and entertaining game play. In Smokescreen, Six to Start and Channel 4 launched a fictional social network that brought issues of online identity and privacy to the forefront for a target audience of 14- to 19-year-olds. We Tell Stories, winner of the 2008 SXSW Experimental and Best in Show Awards, involved a collaboration with Penguin Books to encourage the reinvention and retelling of classic stories.

A novel mix of traditional print publishing and digital experience, this month’s issue of Wired UK contains a game within its pages. According to Six to Start producer and game designer Matt Wieteska,

The game has been designed to exist within and alongside this month’s Wired. The issue’s focus is on the rise of location-based and social gaming, and the idea of game-like ‘achievements’ and how they drive our curiosity and progress. Our tasks and puzzles are scattered throughout its pages, margins, graphics and text – so keep your eyes peeled! Of course, the issue is just the beginning – the game soon expands to take in online content and puzzles, alongside some cool bells and whistles that I don’t want to spoil for you!

Suggesting something even more than a puzzle contest, Wieteska teased me with this: “[t]he game itself does have a theme, an interesting setting, and some cool little stories nestling inside it. I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re hoping you’ll enjoy the fun, tongue-in-cheek tone and all the little easter eggs and references we’ve hidden to some of our favourite things.”

Only players based in the United Kingdom will be eligible for the grand prize Â of an iPad, but according to Six to Start co-founder, acting CEO, and chief creative officer Adrian Hon, the creators have “made an effort to make as many of the assets available internationally” as possible. Non-UK players will still be able to experience most of the game online, even though, according to Wieteska, “[w]e’ve got some really cool stuff going on inside the issue, so people should grab one if they can!”

The Twisperers

May 12, 2010 / Jane Doh

Meet Harold Procter. He’s an ex-soldier, he served in Iraq, and he’s in possession of a mysterious jewel-encrusted box. Let’s just say things aren’t going terribly well for Harold.

Recently, my Twitterverse has been filled with the back-and-forth of some strange charactersâ€”a bartender in Maine, an antiques dealer, several Iraq War veteransâ€”all from the small community of Cape Elizabeth, and all with lives intertwined by this strange, whispering box. And, when they’re not fighting each other, they’re killing themselves. Antiques dealer Jeremiah Webber committed suicide after having dinner with his daughter Suzanne and meeting a strange man that goes by the nameÂ Herod the Great. Ex-soldier Damien Patchett had been complaining about hearing voices,Â although no one knows what was being said. According to this newspaper article, Damien’s body was recently found on the beach, a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his head.

Then there is former sergeant Joel Tobias, who heads up some kind of smuggling operation. Joel is cold, sometimes cruel even to his “friends,” and personally gets my hackles up every time I see him tweet (which, unfortunately, is usually when I first wake up). Is he working for the shadowy Gutelieb Foundation? What about this suspicious man, Herod the Great? Where is this box that is driving everyone to suicide?

These characters are all part of a pervasive social media project called The Twisperers, an online extension of an upcoming book by bestselling thriller novelist John Connolly called The Whisperers. The protagonist is private investigator Charlie Parker, who appeared in Connolly’s first book, Every Dead Thing. The online content gives readers a snapshot of the plot of The Whisperers, and as participants interact with the novel’s characters, they reveal clues about the whispering box. According to our sources, the plot will soon escalate and lead to on-site clues in regional museums in the United Kingdom.

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.

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.

Salt Your Unfolding History with Hope or Doom on an Expedition with Mr Mirrors: An Adventure at This Monthâ€™s Victoria & Albert Museum Friday Late

March 7, 2010 / Jane Doh

AEWMM An Expedition With Mr Mirrors is a collaboration between Failbetter Games and A Door In A Wall (ADIAW), designed for Hide&Seek’s Sandpit Night on Friday, March 26, at the storied and majestic Victoria & Albert Museum. Expedition will be one of several games in this monthâ€™s V&A Friday Late, themed “Playgrounds,” where possibly thousands of participants will invade the museumâ€™s halls for an evening of games and revelry.

Expedition will bring to life some of the dark yet droll inhabitants of Fallen London, the Victorian-inspired universe of Echo Bazaar, a browser-based RPG with strong social and narrative dimensions. Well-received since opening for beta late last year, Echo Bazaar has been nominated for The Escapist‘s Best Browser Game of 2009.

In Expedition, amnesiac players have been drawn to the V&A at the behest of Mr Mirrors, enigmatic Master of the Bazaar and “purveyor of the frangible and the fine.” Travelling the halls of the museum, participants will encounter possibly allegorical strangers who can helpÂ participants recoverÂ their memories after revealing some cryptic secrets. In addition to cards and puzzles, participants will be treated to “glimpses of some new Fallen London back-story and splotches of [contributor] @emilystaubert‘s trademark salacity” as they try to learn who they once were.