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“I Love Bees” and Elan Lee to Receive 2005 Innovation Award

February 15, 2005 / Steve Peters

Inside word comes to us today that “I Love Bees” and lead designer Elan Lee will receive a 2005 Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association, to be announced at the upcoming Game Developers Choice Awards in March. The Innovation award is a special creative/design award given to standouts in innovation every year. Previous games that have won this award include Counter-Strike, Rez and Black + White. As this is a largely console/PC focused organization, we think it’s great for a game like ILB to be recognized.

The award will be presented at the 5th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards on March 9, 2005 at a ceremony during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. For a list of the other nominees, check out the IGDA website.

Congratulations go out from ARGN to Elan Lee and his ILB team, for a job well done and recognition of what a cool thing Alternate Reality Games are!

JMX2 is Coming!

February 13, 2005 / Steve Peters

JadedMedia.net has announced JMX², the followup to the Jaded Media eXperience series of cunningly clever puzzles known as JMX, which took place back in 2002.

This six stage series of puzzles took players months to complete, and spawned discussion areas on Unfiction and YahooGroups. For those interested in a little puzzle history, an archive of the original JMX has been made available for your puzzling enjoyment.

JMX² is set to commence in 2005, and registration will not be required to play this time around. However, you can submit your email address in order to be informed of the launch. Be forewarned, though. JMX² is not an Alternate Reality Game, and will not be for the feint of heart, as it’s aimed at very serious puzzlers.

Discussion at YahooGroups

Deaddrop Announces Puzzle Winner

February 13, 2005 / Steve Peters

Our friends over at Deaddrop have announced that there has been a winner in their ARG Puzzle Contest. Actually, one winner with two runners-up.

Rather than just post the winners, they have decided to instead post a puzzle trail, in true ARG fashion. This trail is comprised of the remainder of the puzzle submissions, and the ultimate solve will reveal who won. So, if you’re looking for a nice distraction, join in on the fun and help discover the winners.

The top puzzles will be featured in an upcoming ARG, with full credits to be posted at that time.

Puzzle trail Discussion at Unfiction.
Chat in #ddtrail (irc.chat-solutions.com)

Still Life Extended Reality Game Announced

February 10, 2005 / Steve Peters

Adventure Gamers reports that Microids is creating an online Alternate Reality Game to promote their upcoming murder-mystery adventure Still Life, which is due to be released on April 14, 2005.

Microids is calling their game an Extended Reality Experience, and it will encompass multiple websites, centering around the characters from Still Life, along with some created specifically for the ARG. The story will evolve through various media as players follow hints provided by the alternate reality itself, and the marketing materials surrounding the game.

Clues are to begin appearing on the network of ingame websites soon. Keep an eye on the Still Life website (and ARGN) for further developments.

[EDIT: An apparent trailhead has been found. Check out Lombartech.com.]

UPDATE: Lenny’s Xanga Meltdown

February 10, 2005 / Steve Peters

We’re sorry to report that Lenny’s Xanga has come to a premature end. Actually, it seems it didn’t really ever get started, at least not officially. According to a post on unfiction by Matthew Addison, the game’s head puppetmaster, Lenny’s Xanga was “made public about 6 months before its intended launch date by a disgruntled former member of the production team.”

Ouch.

[EDIT: To avoid further confusion, we have removed a late article that promoted this game attempt.]

ARG-Parties Announced

January 31, 2005 / Steve Peters

One of the by-products of Alternate Reality Games is the communities that they create and foster, and the sometimes longlasting friendships that can result. Consequently, ARG fans have been busy recently setting up various player meets in the upcoming months. Witness another ARG-Fest-O-Con and now a Hivemeet that are being planned as a way for online players to get together to party and re-live some of the games’ fun in real life.

Following on the heels of successful ARG-Fests in Las Vegas, Orlando and Vancouver BC, players are currently organizing ARGFest NYC, which will take place on July 22-24, 2005 in New York City, and have created a wiki to help coordinate events, accomodations, etc. Discussion of plans and ideas for ARGFest NYC can be found in this thread on unfiction.

For those of you who gave your lives to chasing down Axons a few months back, some midwest Beekeepers are currently planning the first ever Ilovebees Hivemeet in Chicago on May 13-15, 2005. The website they’ve created will help organize events, accommodations and travel plans. In addition, folks are discussing Hivemeet Chicago plans in this unfiction thread.

These meets are player sponsored and organized, so keep in mind that there are no “official” events planned, although if history is any indication, you can expect some realworld ARG-ish fun to drop in on you in one form or another. Watch the respective websites for updated news and information on these events.