Tag: Los Angeles

Recap: DIYDays Fireside Chat with Jan Libby and Steve Peters

November 20, 2009 / Brandie Minchew

DIYDays Freshly triumphant from their most recent transmedia projects, Steve Peters of No Mimes Media and Jan Libby, recently of Levi’s G.O. IV Fortune campaign, took the stage at DIYDays LA to talk about their experiences designing Alternate Reality Games.

Steve and Jan began as players in the emerging genre that we call ARGs. BothÂ made the transition from player to puppetmaster through their work on independent games, which led to careers for each of them in the newborn industry of transmedia entertainment. And both acknowledge that their roots in the player side of these games and experiences now inform their choices as designers. â€œSure, we do this for money,â€ Jan said, â€œbut our hearts are indie.â€ Whether they are designing an ARG for a client or for an indie game, they consider not only the story and its characters, the protagonists and antagonists, but also the audience. Jan views the audience as a character, one that will interact and possibly shape the story as it plays out.

Puppetmasters wanted, Geppetto need not apply

January 27, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

job_opportunity Our roving reporters regularly scan the blogs and news sources that make up our digital world, and this morning, staffers Marie Lamb and Michael Andersen found two unique opportunities for aspiring game designers in Los Angeles and New York City. If you are someone who wishes to work in the exciting field of alternate reality game creation, these might be a stepping stone in the right direction!

First up, a craigslist ad from a company called Urban Interactive, who is advertising for an “Alternate Reality Game Writer for iPhone (NYC).” The ad talks about a new product called Urban Sleuth, which is described as, “a platform that allows anyone to create alternate reality games, ranging from simple treasure hunts to full-blown storytelling adventures that incorporate improv actors, local merchants, flash mobs, etc.” It also reveals that a new ARG will be launching in March called The Analog Resistance, and lists the cities of Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago as locales affected by the game. Specifically, they need help writing missions for events taking place in Manhattan, and the ad suggests that owning an iPhone or iPod Touch would be helpful.

The ad triggered a spark of a memory for me, and as I looked back in my cluttered inbox, I did find a game tip from last month that we weren’t able to follow up on which relates to this ad. The email, from Nick Tommarello, further describes The Analog Resistance this way: “It’s the ‘Amazing Race’ meets The Game (with Michael Douglas).” Sounds altogether cool and wonderful!

The second job opportunity isn’t a paying position, but an internship at Studio 33 in Los Angeles, according to this posting at internweb.com. There are quite a few positions available to those who wish to intern at the start-up, including Production Office Management, Web Series production, Alternate Reality Game production, Website Development and Maintenance, Sponsorship & Advertising and Marketing. The hours are flexible, and students may be able to use this for college credit. The start date is listed as “immediately” and the internship runs to the end of April, 2009.

So what are you waiting for — get out there and make a great game!

“Stop The International” Returns With A Bang – And Lots Of Cash

January 16, 2009 / Celina Beach

Stop The International, the promotional ARG for the Clive Owen movie The International, first debuted in November 2008 when live events were held in several locations around the world, including Berlin, Los Angeles, New York City, and London. During these events, players were given clues to “evidence caches” containing money and documents which could be used to prove The International Bank of Business and Credit’s shady dealings. The game lasted four weeks… and then seemingly went dead.

On January 14th, the site went live again – and in a big way! In the four weeks since the first part of the game concluded, the main character, Inspector Salinger (Clive Owen) was dismissed from Scotland Yard after his main informant was killed in a suspicious car crash. However, he is continuing his pursuit of the International as an Agent with Interpol and with the help of a Manhattan prosecutor named Eleanor Whitman, along with the help of a new informant from within The International – and YOU! Salinger’s new informant is stashing more evidence caches around the United States and Europe in over 60 different dead-drop sites over the course of the next three weeks, and he needs our help in retrieving all the evidence caches so they can be submitted as evidence to Interpol, and bring down The International once and for all!

The first drop sites in the list went live on January 15th in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego. As each city’s countdown expired, a clue to the location of the cache, a number code, and GPS coordinates were revealed. Players in each of the cities rushed to the sites, and upon arriving, discovered a lockbox with a combination lock which could be opened using the provided number code. Packed inside the lockbox compartments was money of many different countries — US, Australian, and Hong Kong dollars, Mexican pesos, Russian rubles — and the money was REAL. The map page displaying the dead-drop sites then updated, indicating that the cache was successfully picked up and evidence forwarded to Interpol. As an added bonus, players could enter the serial numbers of the retrieved money and see the trail the money had followed – crime lords, criminal organizations, money launderers (however, apparently *any* serial number from any form of currency will work as well). All drop sites that went live yesterday were successfully found, with the sole exception of the first in New York City, more than likely due to players not realizing what exactly they were looking for.

Putting a Halt to a Vast International Conspiracy

November 17, 2008 / Marie Lamb

It’s not every day I get sent blood money, but today’s FedEx delivery contained that and a whole lot more. Included in the packet marked “evidence” was a USB drive with files of bank transfers and a recorded message, along with a map to “evidence drops” and some photos (pictures after the break). The evidence comes from an informant in Berlin, where it was recovered.

It all points to stoptheinternational.com, which is a promo site for the new movie The International starring Clive Owen. Owen is Chief Inspector Louis Salinger, tasked with tracking down evidence against The International Bank of Business and Credit, a large bank which appears to be a front for money laundering and other illegal shenanigans.

Entering the serial number for the $2 bill in the packet shows a trail that leads to guns in Africa, then shows the bill’s current location. Urp. It’s a nice touch even if it’s easy to explain. Exploring further reveals another site, www.theibbc.com, for the bank being investigated. Beyond some boring photos and a hard to read typeface, there doesn’t seem to be much there.

However, stoptheinternational.com promises some continuing interaction via weekly updates and live events. The informant who hid the recovered packet of info has secreted other stashes in New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin. Inspector Salinger is recruiting agents to help him find these stashes and analyze their contents. The first event is November 19th in Los Angeles. Check out the “Find the Evidence” link for the map, complete with countdown clock!

We’ll hope for field reports from the LA agents after the event. In the meantime, enjoy the copious documentation provided on the IBBC and its activities.

Cloverfield is Out — What Now?

January 20, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Editor’s Note: This article is spoiler-free, for those who haven’t see the movie yet. However, outgoing links may contain spoiler information.

Who was to know that when J.J. Abrams launched the first trailer for what we now know as Cloverfield that the buzz surrounding the movie would be so powerful that the famous Mann Chinese Theater in Los Angeles would have a special midnight showing of the film? Well, we won’t say “told you so!” — in fact, we didn’t tell you much, except that there were curious web sites to be found in July of last year, and that the Ethan Haas viral web site was officially unconnected to the 1-18-08 mystery. Thankfully, there are many resources out there for fans of the movie to get caught up on what’s happened in the web campaign so far, in case (like me) you decide that today is the day you finally take a look at some of this stuff.

I began this morning by taking a look through the Cloverfield forum section at Unfiction. I thanked my lucky stars when I came across this post by TheRabbit, which summarizes the story so far, chronologically, and links to all of the relevant sites. It’s easy to follow and helps to connect some of the dots that Abrams and his crew have left along the trail. Essentially, the experience seems to be a tale of the effect of environmental misdoings, which may or may not be connected to a secret ingredient in a popular beverage. I highly recommend reading the post, which looks to be a work in progress.

From there, I surfed over to cloverfieldclues.com which has been an ongoing archive of news regarding the movie and the online experience. The owner of the site, Dennis Acevedo, was recently interviewed on the NPR show “All Things Considered” as part of a feature on the movie and the buzz that was built along the way — our own Sean C. Stacey was also interviewed, but his contribution never made it to the final edit. The Cloverfield Clues web site offers readers a chance to view archives of the in-game web sites as well, which was handy to see today, as many of the sites are “under construction” after the U.S. release of the film.

Onward I went, to the Cloverfield wiki at Despoiler, which is another great source of information and archived items. Wikis seem to be the easiest way to compile info into a trail, and this one is as comprehensive as one would hope. User contributions help to keep facts organized, while discussion is relegated to tabbed Talk pages. The latest news page has documented the recent changes to the game’s web sites, and updates are ongoing.

So now that we’re all caught up, what now? Will the experience keep going, now that the movie is out? Will we see an extended reality that further explains events as they happened in the film? Or is this it for the Cloverfield web presence? While no one knows for sure — except Abrams and his creative team, of course — it seems to be a shame if all of this goes fades into the ether.

Tag: Los Angeles

Recap: DIYDays Fireside Chat with Jan Libby and Steve Peters

Puppetmasters wanted, Geppetto need not apply

“Stop The International” Returns With A Bang – And Lots Of Cash

Putting a Halt to a Vast International Conspiracy

Cloverfield is Out — What Now?

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