Category: Previews (Page 14 of 19)

Alice is Lost — We Hear Rumors She Fell Down Some Sort Of Hole, Made By A Rabbit Or Something

argnicon.jpgAs if the ARG world just can’t get enough of Alice in Wonderland lingo (rabbit holes, curtains, puppet masters), a teaser was made public on June 1st for an upcoming project from Eric Harshbarger of Perplex City fame, called Alice Is Lost. Eric first made it known at Perplexorum that he had opened the website www.aliceislost.com.

Eric released news of the project hot on the heels of the abrupt and unexpected end of Perplex City, knowing that the countless dedicated fans and followers of PXC would be pining for puzzles and mysteries to solve. Eric makes it clear, however, that this is not PXC II: “This is a side project of mine. While I am still at Mind Candy as a Puzzle Designer, this is not a Mind Candy affiliated project.” He expects to launch “the search,” which he’s been working on for nearly a year, to begin this fall.

Fans have already jumped in excitedly, and even created a Facebook group to rally people and keep everyone updated. The group attracted Eric, who decided to come out from behind the curtain and share a bit about his project in the group’s discussion. He described it as having “some ARG elements to it; there will be a story to some extent, but mainly it will be about PUZZLES. Lots of puzzles.” There will be puzzle cards, he says, but they will not be physical. Instead, they’ll be distributed via the website, and only ‘registered’ users will be able to submit solutions and gain points. That raises another significant point: the registration fee. He continues, “There will be a registration fee, yes; but it will be a one-time thing (not a subscription), and it will be pretty small (not more than the cost of a typical boardgame probably.” He estimates the fee will be around $25USD, but is open to suggestions. Registration will most likely also include additional privileges for the player.

“The best way I can think to describe this,” Eric states, “is a massive ‘Puzzle Party‘ like I’ve hosted in the past, but it will be available to everyone on the web.” He also expects the project to run for over a year, although he doubts it will extend as long as two years. That’s nearly a potential twenty-four months filled to the brim with puzzles galore, but the main mystery ultimately will still be How do I find Alice?

So mark Fall 2007 on your calendar. Also, keep an eye on the unfiction thread, or the perplexorum topic, or even the facebook group. But, most importantly, visit aliceislost.com and sign up to receive updates.

Perplex City Season 2 “Preview Episode” Goes Live

pxc.jpgThe ARGNet tipline has garnered some exciting news about an upcoming development in the world of popular ARG Perplex City:

This Friday, a live “preview episode” for Perplex City will launch, providing the first opportunity in two years for newcomers to join a Perplex City game as it starts. While not the full replayable episode expected in June, no prior experience is required for the mini-game, making it an ideal opportunity to jump in.

Sign up at the Perplex City Stories website to receive notification when the game starts.

Game Alert: Frozen Indigo Angel

frozenindigoangel.jpgThere’s a new alternate reality game in the wild, and it goes by the name of “Frozen Indigo Angel.” It’s a promotion put on by BBC Radio 1, and is promoting Radio 1’s Big Weekend music festival. The event is the largest free music festival in Europe, and the game has a number of tie-ins to real world entities — the BBC web site, radio, podcasts and many popular web sites are where you can find information leading to the game.

The trailhead for the game can be found at www.pauldenchfield.com, which details the life of Paul Denchfield, who obviously loves the conveniences of Web 2.0, as he uses Twitter, Flickr, Imeem and YouTube to tell his story. Recently, there was a live event involving Paul as he protested at the BBC, and our sources tell us that there are more live events in the near future.

The blogosphere has taken interest in the game, as Matt Deegan, Wonderland and The Guardian Blog have all featured the game in recent posts. This is yet another example of how the BBC has embraced alternate reality gaming as a content delivery model and buzzmaker, as previous ARGs Jamie Kane and Wannabes have come out of the BBC camp.

One last thing, for you faithful ARGNet readers — watch this game carefully, as we have an inside track on a very interesting development to come very, very soon.

B Seeing U

body.jpg B.A. Saint Feline will tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. She’s not a cat person, even though strays follow her wherever she goes. She’s a struggling actor. She’s an honest psychic. She’s an old soul. She also has been dreaming about a burning city, filled with smoke, flames and various ARG community members. Yep, that’s right – we’re going to burn, baby, burn.

Unless, of course, we figure out the mystery surrounding B.A. Saint Feline and her website, www.bseeingu.com. B.A. has been sending packages to the people she sees in her dreams, which include several loose pages from H. P. Lovecraft and various sea monster books (and unsolved puzzles too!). She seems to be searching for more fellow dreamers using craiglist posts in several cities.

To find out more, check out the thread over at the unForums or join in on the fun in the chat-Solutions irc channel #stfeline.

Dive Into Indian Lake… If You Trust The Government

By Jessie Greene and Nicko Demeter

sign.jpgWhat is the Indian Lake Project? Short answer: we’re not entirely sure. At the moment it looks more like an interesting fictional blog than anything else, but there are a few sly hints that it may be a prelude to something more ARGish (including contact from “America’s Research Gate”).

A box found in the woods near Indian Lake is given to a dying man’s nephew, known only as JohnS. Over several posts, the author slowly catalogues the contents, revealing a plot worthy of an X-Files episode. His public discussion of an apparent government conspiracy attracts the attention of several mysterious individuals.

Some of the documentation and photographic evidence point heavily towards a secret experiment that the US Government conducted in the early 1950’s. The posts also hint that other projects may be related to highly classified operations such as the CIA’s MKULTRA.

An internet search on the blog reveals that as early as 2005, a rather baffled community has currently stumbled onto the site as well as other forums and blogs discussing The Indian Lake Project (join the Unforums discussion here). There are also uncorroborated reports of JohnS communicating with followers outside of the weblog medium.

If the Indian Lake Project develops into an ARG, it has the beginnings of a great story. But regardless of whether the ultimate form of the narrative ends up being an ARG, it lends itself to a great read and helps promote the ARG genre by the generating interest in the form and encouraging others to try their hand at cross-media storytelling.

So is it an ARG? Not yet. A blog-like episodic novel? Maybe. The work of a delusional madman? We should be so lucky. At this time nobody knows exactly what it is, ironically adding to the mystery surrounding the site. ARG or not, we will keep an eye on it to see if it evolves further.

Bay City ARGers: The ‘Fest in Fogtown ’07

SFimage.pngIt’s official folks: ARGfest-O-Con 2007 is coming to San Francisco and plans to leave its heart there the weekend of March 2-4. The focus will be on “How to PM a Game” and “The Future of ARGs” (working titles). Save the date! And after you scribble it down excitedly on your Dilbert calendar, or type it excitedly into your Nerdtastic Online Scheduler 6000XV, find your to-do list and write down the following: Help plan ARGfest.

Yes, this is your chance to jump in at the beginning and help put together the best fest yet. Rose, Unfiction regular and ARGfest NYC hostess extraordinaire, has once more agreed to helm the efforts to get this show up and running, and she would really like some local help to get logistics settled as soon as possible. Specifically, she needs people familiar with the city and its environs to suggest local venues for hotels, restaurants, amusements, potential field trips, and/or any other information about the area that you can provide. She promises you will not be overburdened.

We also need volunteers to suggest and help coordinate speakers/panels, and help run the registration process. You do not need to be local to do this.

Would you or your company like to help sponsor ARGfest? Contact Rose to discuss the possible arrangements.

PM her at the Unforum (user name: rose) or add yourself to the handy ARGfest-O-Wiki on the Help page with your preferred contact information.

See you by the bay!

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