Tag: delay

Breaking News: Perplex City Season 2 Delayed Indefinitely

Earlier today it was revealed on the Perplex City game site that the expected June relaunch of the popular alternate reality game would “no longer be possible.” Season two was scheduled to be released this month, but the statement on the site makes reference to the quality of the experience, and how Mind Candy believes in holding off on releases until “they’re ready and… [they’re] entirely happy with them.”

The landscape of Mind Candy itself has also undergone major changes, as Story Team members Adrian Hon, Andrea Phillips, David Varela and Naomi Alderman, as well as COO Dan Hon, have all left the company within the last 48 hours. In blog posts, Dan Hon notes that he wants “to try something new,” while his brother Adrian remarks that “it’s time… to move on.” Phillips and Alderman echoed sentiments of celebration, sadness and thankfulness for the players of PXC, and Varela chose the Unfiction forums to sum up his thoughts on the turn of events.

Details are still emerging, so watch ARGNet for further details. The story will be part of the discussion on the upcoming 26th episode of the ARG Netcast as well.

Thanks to Brian Enigma at Netninja for the summary post and links.

Perplex City Murder Becomes “Cold Case”? Perplex City Stories Faces Delay

pxc.jpgEarlier this week, Mind Candy announced that the launch of Perplex City Stories will be delayed until June, pushing back its original April release by two months. The delay will allow the Mind Candy team to build a gaming engine that allows for what Director of Play/Executive Producer Adrian Hon describes as “single-player replayable ARGs, and massively multiplayer ARGs simultaneously” in addition to allowing for extensive pre-launch testing. The video trailer on the Perplex City Stories site indicates the plot will involve a brutal murder in a Perplex City bar.

Although Perplex City Stories will be delayed, the first wave of Perplex City Season Two cards became available from Firebox at the beginning of March, and We Love Puzzles, a related website with a variety of games and puzzles is currently live.

Adrian Hon is scheduled to be a panelist on Episode 19 of the ARG Netcast series. Discussion topics will include Perplex City Season Two, among other topical ARG news.

Stranger Adventures or Waiting Game?

sa1.jpg“We want to let everyone know that we will release Daily Rage! very soon. Although we can not supply a specific start date…”

And so came and went another update from Tech Support at Stranger Adventures, an ARG that uses Flash technology to grant the user access to an interface in which they can gather clues, watch videos of the updates, and help solve the case.

After three runs on plots that spanned the period of days, Stranger Adventures announced that it will be creating the Daily Rage, an interactive self-concluding daily ARG. While the player base remained sceptical, the developers announced that the cash rewards (yes, winners there get real money) will continue with the Daily Rage and will be awarded to the winners, well, daily.

However, the already ambitious project seems like it has been placed on an indefinite hold. The SA fans, loyal to the core, proclaim that they will remain steadfast until the release of Daily Rage, yet plenty of them have already signed off. The updates from SA, while filled with ambiguity, hint that the release date is not far. We will remain on the case, as it were, and let you know when you can go visit and get your dose of Daily Rage.

The Devil Wears MySpace

devil-AB.jpgContinuing my streak of pre/reviewing games that seem to stall (Seriously, ARGods! What’s up?), I bring you “Angelo Beckett”, the game about a man who knows too little.

It started out as many grassroots games (sadly) tend to do, with a cryptic AIM conversation. A member of the Unfiction forums got a message, asking for help, from a man known only by his AIM handle, “Angelo Beckett”. However, in this case, the person in need of help was not being cryptic for drama’s sake as much as a total case of amnesia. The person woke up, in London, with a bag containing £20,000 and a note with: the email address from which the person was messaging, as well as the initials B.A.B., a phone number (currently determined to be a mobile phone number in the United Kingdom somewhere), and the ominous message, “Do anything. Get any help. You’ll need it.”

And with that, players were sucked into another GAIM… or was it?

One player called the phone number, and got the address for the MySpace page of Lucien, a nefarious puppetmaster with a love of things evil. (I mean, Bedazzled? OMGZORZ!!! Pure. Evil.) Anyway, Lucien was obviously the mastermind behind the sad state of Angelo Beckett’s condition, as he promised to give one piece of this amnesiac’s life back for every puzzle solved. Some puzzles were straightforward code, and others were riddles such as one requiring pictures taken of London landmarks with a teddy bear in the shot.

Also continuing the grand tradition of all too many grassroots efforts, the game hasn’t been updated in over two weeks, after having had generally daily updates, making most players (especially the one who had to lug a teddy bear to a famous London theatre-front, one would assume) quite irate and feeling certain that the game is crashing.

The premise, while not entirely original, was interesting, and had managed to gather a sizable following of players in its initial days. Here’s to hoping that this one continues, and comes up with a rather good (in-game) explanation of the disappearance.

Akalesh Ascendant Update

akalesh.jpgThe former project lead of Akalesh Ascendant (previously reported on here in August 2005) has informed us that half of the creative design team for the newly formed and registered LLP corporation “Dark Element Gaming” has departed the project, due to be the company’s debut in Alternate Reality Gaming. Several key members, including the head writer, head logistical designer, and vice president, resigned their positions at the Alternate Reality Game yesterday. This split was not contentious and the team members left as friends.

David Andrews, founder of Dark Element Gaming, has confirmed the split. “The Akalesh Ascendant game has been delayed indefinitely due to personnel issues. Players’ contact info is still held in complete confidentiality. The game will happen, just not in the timeframe specified by the original meta site.”