Tag: IDEAS Fest 1906

Studio Cypher To Host IRC Chat

studiocyphers2.jpgAs mentioned last week, a new Alternate Reality Game of sorts is emerging from a company called Studio Cypher. Since the discovery of the game, many members on the Unfiction message boards have been keeping up with ongoing events, so when the web site changed on April 14th, it did not go unnoticed. The site now has two branches — a main section with information on the company itself, including information on previously developed ARGs Ares Station and IDEAS Fest 1906, and a second section on their new game/multi-player novel Cyphers.

The company is taking a slightly different approach with this venture, and has stated that players will be charged a “nominal fee” to become an agent in the game. While the pay-to-play gaming model is hardly a new phenomenon, it is uncommon to find the model applied to Alternate Reality Gaming. However, as the company has been successful with two previous ARG projects, perhaps this is a situation where the players can bank on a quality experience deserving of the fee. In any case, the game creators have announced a pre-game IRC chat which will address “how everything will work,” which will serve as a unique opportunity for players to address out-of-game concerns before the game goes live. The chat will take place on the Chat-solutions IRC network this Tuesday, April 18, at 8 pm Eastern (GMT-5).

Thanks to Magesteff at Unfiction for the information.

IDEAS Festival 1906

mcguffin.jpgA new mini-campaign, IDEAS Festival 1906, has appeared in recent days, in part to promote the Indiana IDEAS (Interactive Digital Environments Arts and Storytelling) 2006 Festival at Indiana University.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assist Time Corps Detectives in tracking down one Silas McGuffin. Mr. McGuffin has been performing unlicensed Chronal Travel and has conspired to commit WWI. It seems there was an incident involving a bakelite penny, a train, and a bunch of corn resulting in Panama declaring war on the United States in 1906. Oops.

I have it on good authority from a Time Corp Detective on conditions of anonymity that we should be able to solve this case in about a month. Any interested parties should visit the briefing center sooner rather than later if they wish to help find the time-jumping madman.

IDEAS Festival 2006 will be held Saturday April 1st, 2006 at the Radio-TV Center, Indiana University Bloomington. From 10am to 5pm there will be a juried show of “digital and interactive works in sound, animation, video, 2D and 3D graphics” followed by the Keynote Address by Bob Cesca of Camp Chaos Entertainment, Inc.