Category: News (Page 141 of 183)

Studio Cypher

April 9, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

During the live event for the IDEAS Festival ARG, I came across a laminated cipher reference card made by a company calling themselves Studio Cypher. After the curtain was lifted, I got the chance to speak with the Puppetmasters behind both the IDEAS Festival ARG and Ares Station. Ian Pottmeyer, Will Emigh and Nathan Mishler have formed a company dedicated to the production of ARGs called Studio Cypher.

Their website describes Studio Cypher as a company that â€œcreates multi-player novels: stories that place you in the middle of a mystery you can help solve.â€ Mishler and Emigh explained that they use the term â€œmulti-player novelâ€ rather than ARG to avoid alienating potential players who arenâ€™t familiar with the term. Studio Cypher is going to use a partial pay-to-play model for their ARGs. Players will be able to play along without paying a fee, but wonâ€™t be able to access some of the premium content in the game. Although they havenâ€™t announced an official price, I was told that the cost will be less than $10 per adventure. The first episode is due to launch sometime over the next month.

IDEAS Festival 2006

April 9, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

As previously reported, the 2006 IDEAS Festival took place this past weekend at Indiana University in Bloomington. The annual festival celebrates Interactive Digital Environments, Arts and Storytelling (IDEAS) and promotes the university’s Masters Program in Interactive Media and Game Design (MIME). In past years, the festival exhibits were judged and awarded prizes. The coordinators of this year’s festival decided to eliminate the judging to create a more open environment where ideas could be shared.

Works in several different media were exhibited including video games, alternate reality games, immersive virtual reality environments, interactive sculpture and mobile art. Many of these pieces explore different ways to immerse or interact with the audience. One piece by Robert Derr, Chance, immerses the art museum-goers by giving them the opportunity to interact with the artist by rolling a die to determine his fate. Derr places four video cameras on his body and moves throughout the city in the direction determined by what number is shown on the die. Another piece, The Uncanny Road Ahead, uses virtual reality technology to immerse players in the virtual environment. I attended the event myself to exhibit Orbital Colony as interactive art and storytelling, but the IDEAS Festival had an ARG of its own, IDEAS Festival 1906. I actually was lucky enough to take part in a live finale for the game during the show:

One of the characters, Director Anderson, entered the hall and announced that he was going to exhibit a game from the future called Non Compos Mentis. This was the cue to begin my mission. I nervously made my way through the halls of the university building, keeping an eye out for Anderson’s cronies. Agent Sueno and Silas McGuffin were counting on me to retrieve the evidence they needed to bring down Director Anderson. I made my way to the locker and unlocked it with the combination they had given me. I found enough evidence inside to ensure that Anderson was going to be brought to justice. Soon after, I joined Sueno and McGuffin to confront Anderson and show him the video of his future arrest.

Overall, the most exciting part of the festival was the high level of awareness about Alternate Reality Games. A surprising number of people in attendance knew what an ARG was and could name at least one example. Most of those who weren’t already familiar with the genre were very interested in learning more.

The Joke’s On Us!

April 3, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Nothing is more humbling than when a thoughtful April Fool’s Day prank goes awry. And, in this case, by “goes awry” we mean “bombs terribly”. You see, we had developed this great trail for April Fool’s day, which started with our April 1st announcement. Since the article talked about changes on this site, most people assumed that when they found that the link to the ARG Graveyard had changed to a custom 404 page that the case was solved. This was not the case, and maybe it was bad timing for me to make the decision to roll out that update at the same time. As a wise man told us earlier today, there’s a subtle sense of irony that our fake ARG failed miserably. But, because there was a bunch of work put into it from us to you, we’d like to take you through it anyway.

A Very Important Message From ARGN

April 1, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

At this time, we would like to make a very personal statement for everyone who follows this site or has toiled in our archives from time to time.

Playing an Alternate Reality Game is hard work, but its even harder reporting on one. Real life takes a back seat to the importance of getting the news out to our valued reader base. I’ve personally made many sacrifices — skipping hip replacement surgery, for example — to make sure that the word about ARG gets out there to the masses. Love is, and always has been, my motivation, but now it’s time to come clean.

Find Araya Wraps Up

March 30, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Find Araya, a grassroots Alternate Reality Game that began in late January, came to an end last week, and from what we gather, the experience was satisfying for players of the game until the end, when the game ended suddenly. We caught up with Mountain Girl, an UnFiction forums member who was one of the most active participants in the game, and she had this to offer:

The premise of Find Araya was just as the name implied. Araya Benedict was missing. An anonymouse note led detective James Pearson to the case. The note described a young girl missing for over a month and pled for help finding her.

After searching diligently for any links to who Araya was, the team was led to Ditch Media. The company appeared to be a group specializing in the creation of alternate realities in order to secure a better future for a subject the company deemed needy. The alternate reality would not be revealed to the “subject” but instead completely take them by surprise and change their life forever.

NextArt – The Voice

March 25, 2006 / The ARGNet Staff

NextArt: The Voice debuted last night at the Orlando Film Festival. Previously reported on here at ARGN, Jeff Wirth’s style of spontaneous theater blends real life seamlessly with a created reality, dropping a “spectactor” into a situation in which he or she is another person and must act accordingly.

If you’re in the Orlando area, you can use the contact information here to get involved with some of the real-life events taking place in the next week. Otherwise, watch the story unfold on the blog and on the Rosetta Corporation home page. Since there was a casting call posted to the Unforums a month ago, you might discover that some of the online interactors are people you know.

NextArt: The Voice runs until Thursday, March 30, 2006.