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Hello There, Seeker: A Look Into the Future With Interdimensional Games

January 18, 2010 / Michael Andersen

On January 1, 2010, Interdimensional Games Inc. (iDGi) issued a press release announcing their discovery of a means of exporting the human consciousness into another dimension by using a satellite, ‘iDGi-1’, orbiting the moon. By accessing the company’s homepage at InterDimensionalGames.com and waiting for a solar eclipse, visitors can take a peek at the future through the computer of Worldview Industries Employee #1195. This alternate reality game sets the stage for the release of iDGi’s new video game codenamed Project B6Â by showcasing the game’s universe.

From the start, Interdimensional Games attempts to replicate the look and feel of PC and console gaming through the web browser. Players are greeted with a title screen promising to “[advance] the art form of interactive story-telling through the creation of emotionally compelling, immersive first-person experiences” before displaying the iDGi logo. After the title screen, players are taken to an interactive space map, where they can watch an impending solar eclipse set to sweeping orchestral music. At the moment of eclipse, the game begins in earnest as players must input a series of symbols in order to unlock the interdimensional interface.

AfterÂ completing the first puzzle, a cutsceneÂ leads the player to an antiquated desktopÂ presumably belonging toÂ Worldview Industries Employee #1195.Â The player is greeted asÂ the “Seeker,”Â and gains access to Employee #1195’s online diary, a series of audio files, and a game of Hangman.Â The files reveal a future where countries have replaced their militia with Automated Artificial Intelligence Border Defense Weaponry Systems, shrugged off their dependence on oil, banned Scientology, and cured diabetes.

The Lonelygirl15 Universe Returns 01/11/10 With LG15: Outbreak

January 10, 2010 / Michael Andersen

lg15outbreak It’s been over three years since a young girl named Bree started posting YouTube videos under the lonelygirl15 username. The webseries has since released three seasons and spawnedÂ a number ofÂ spin-offs both domestically and internationally. The latest addition to EQAL’s Lonelygirl15 franchise, LG15: Outbreak, premieres tomorrow at LG15.com/OutbreakÂ and will be showcased on theÂ lonelygirl15 Youtube channel. EQAL selected Outbreak from a number of pilot submissions for its second The Show Is Yours contest (TSIY). Outbreak will run for eight weeks, with new content released every weekday.

EQAL offered TSIY as an opportunity for fans of the show to add to the lonelygirl15 canon, leveraging the company’s distribution networks. LG15: The Last was the first series produced as a result of TSIY. For the first iteration of the contest, EQAL provided the winning team with $2,500 to help with production costs. For its second iteration, EQAL sweetened the pot, offering $5,000 for the rights to the show, agreeing to split the net profits from the show.Â Additionally, Glenn Rubenstein, the creator of the OpAphid alternate reality game, agreed to offer some assistance to the winning production team.

The Lonelygirl15 series built its community around interaction and puzzlesolving, so fans of alternate reality games should look closely at the first few episodes. Earlier today, the show’s executive producer Austin McConnell linked to an image on twitter with a string of binary code promoting tomorrow’s launch.Â McConnellÂ will be producing the series through his company,Â Tempest Pictures.

Click Here for breaking news from LG15Today on Outbreak.
Click Here to watch Outbreak‘s TSIY2 pilot.

Lance Weiler’s HiM Selected For Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab

December 28, 2009 / Michael Andersen

HIMlores

Artwork by Reinier Clabbers.

Between January 21-31, cinephiles and celebrities will converge on Park City Utah for the annualÂ Sundance Film Festival, immersing themselves in a rich tapestry of stories from independent filmmakers around the world. However, the immersion will start a few days early for Lance Weiler. Seize the Media’s upcoming transmedia project HiM was selected as one of twelve projects for the Sundance Institute’s Screewriters Lab. Weiler and his co-writer Chuck Wendig will spend the five days leading up to the Festival at the Sundance Resort honing their writing.

Over the course of the workshop, writers meet one-on-one with a distinguished group of creative advisors. Reflecting on his experience, 2009 Sundance Lab Fellow Avi Weider explains that the Lab served as “a great opportunity for everyone who got to go to really work intensively on the script and not to be able to hide from any of the soft spots that are lurking in all of our writing.” Weiler notes that he looks forward to the one-on-one sessions as a chance “to not only be able to workshop the script, but to be able to talk about ideas about how [to] deal with pacing and focus, and how [to] execute across multiple platforms effectively.”

Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, notes that this is the first time the Lab will support a transmedia project. The Sundance Institute Screenwriter’s Lab has supported an extensive list of award-winning independent films in the past including John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, Kimberly Pierce’s Boys Don’t Cry and Quentin Tarantino’s Resevoir Dogs.

HiM has attracted attention at CineMart and Power to the Pixel for the elaborate transmedia narrative planned. Weiler admits that some of the game’s content has been out in the wild since the end of Hope is Missing in 2007. Sometime in 2010, these assets will be complementedÂ by the release of geo-locative applications for the iPhone and Android tied to the experience. Later in 2010, Weiler hopes to begin shooting the feature film, which will serve as “just one larger component within [the] whole story world.”

The Game’s Afoot

December 10, 2009 / Marie Lamb

holmes_icon The new Sherlock Holmes movie comes out Christmas Day, but before then, fans of the Great Detective have a chance to try out their own sleuthing skills with a slick game promotion put out by AKQA and Hide & Seek in the UK, called 221B.

While I wouldn’t go as far as calling 221B an alternate reality game, it is very entertaining, when it actually works.Â The game is trying out new space by tetheringÂ itselfÂ to Facebook. To play,Â you canÂ sign up as either Watson or Holmes and then invite a friend to play along in the other role.Â Some people have reported problems with the Facebook interface, but there is also an option to play the game by yourself, switching back and forth between the roles to get all the clues. There is also a special, free version of TweetDeck you can install which gives out hints for the weekly games and allows you to follow some of the characters from the movie.

After you sign up on the web site and link the game to your Facebook login, you can dive into the first chapter.Â Each story begins with a video of a character explaining what’s going on and what they need you to do.Â Materials are presented for you to click on and read–photographs, documents, etc.Â The best thing about this game are the graphics–eachÂ item is beautifully designed and rendered to look like an authentic 19th century artifact.Â After you examine each piece of evidence it’s added to your notebook and you can proceed to the next step.Â Each action you take in the gameÂ provides experience points which are available for use later in the game.

DARPA Network Challenge: Seeing Red?

December 4, 2009 / Michael Andersen

darpa_challenge If you see an 8-foot wide red weather balloon floating on the horizon during your commute tomorrow, don’t worry. You haven’t been transported into a Nena music video shoot. As we previously reported, DARPA will be deploying ten weather balloons across theÂ United StatesÂ as part of its Network Challenge, with $40,000 at stake.

A number of organizations have expressed an interest in putting up fake balloons tomorrow. So if you see a red balloon, here are a few tips to make sure you’ve identified a verified balloon. First, approach the balloon, making note of its number: authentic DARPA balloons will be accompanied by DARPA officials carrying appropriate credentials. Take photographs of the balloon, DARPA official, and the credentials if you can manage it: by providing proof of authenticity, your information is more likely to be trustworthy. Plus, if your camera includes GPS coordinates in its metadata, you can provide an additional form of locative verification if the team needs to double-check the coordinates.

If you have a GPS device, copy down the coordinates. Otherwise, write down the nearest cross streets and then follow the simple instructions at Lifehacker to display GPS coordinates using Google Maps. Coordinates within a mile of the balloon’s location will be accepted, so you don’t need to be exact, just close. Now, you’ll probably need to convert the coordinates into degree-minute-second (DD-MM-SS) format, which can be accomplished using this java applet.

Finally, send your information to some of the many groups engaged in the hunt. As DARPA Director Regina Dugan explained at UCLA’s celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Internet, this task is much simpler today than it would have been in 1969. But that doesn’t make it easy by any stretch of the imagination.

Happy hunting to all the teams involved in the challenge.

GO FORTH, O PIONEERS! A Reflection on Levi’s Go Forth Campaign

December 3, 2009 / Michael Andersen

goforth “You have built a community in Grayson’s name and created cameraderie in his image. That this continues to be his legacy so many years after his vanishing is all he ever hoped for.” After digging a hole 27 paces away from a rock in Zion National Park (located at N 27’10.043″ W 113’10.650″), Laura Hall unearthed a letter bearing those words, along with a check for $100,000. This marked the conclusion of Levi Strauss’ cross-country treasure hunt that spanned the American countryside over six weeks.

It all began with a package asking the question “Who was Grayson Ozias IV and where is his fortune?” Over the next few weeks, players learned about the mysterious Grayson Ozias through a series of recordings left on wax cylinders. The messages allowed players to retrace Grayson Ozias’ journey to thirteen destinations across the country. At each location, they picked up artifacts from Grayson’s travels and met with a variety of challenges, including puzzlesolving in a county jail, strumming on a washboard while singing “When the Saints Go Marching In”, and telling tales by a campfire. After retracing Grayson’s steps, the first 100 players to correctly complete a quiz received the final clue to $100,000 in buried treasure. As the first to unravel the clue, Laura Hall received the honors of digging up Grayson Ozias IV’s fortune.