Tag: mind candy (Page 3 of 4)

Perplex City Video Contest Announced

May 4, 2006 / Larry Eisner

As announced last Thursday at PerplexCity.com, Mind Candy and You Tube of, well, you know, Earth, as well as the Perplex City Academy and the Open Design Agency of Perplex City, are beginning a video contest to promote Perplex City, as well as the game with its namesake. This marks the first time an Alternate Reality Game will incorporate user-generated video into the realm of the game, and has inspired many of the PXC player base to pick up their cameras and start shooting.

According to the Perplex City official contest page, videos will be accepted for a four week period which started April 27th. The video submissions should illustrate “the Joys of Perplex City” — whether that means the city itself, or the game, is likely intentionally unclear. As well, videos must be 30-90 seconds long and family-friendly, and everything contained in the video must be either entirely original, or free from copyright restriction (read: Creative Commons). Beyond that, apparently, the sky is the limit.

Third Wave of Perplex City Cards

April 10, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

It’s been nine months since Perplex City opened its doors to the public, asking for assistance in finding the Receda Cube. Now, with the third wave of playing cards available, players have more clues to help them in their search for the cube — and with it, the $200,000 reward that accompanies its safe return. Players were also treated to a visually stunning redesign of the Perplex City web site in the past week, which has added some valuable resources that open the door for people interested in getting involved with PXC for the first time.

“The world of Perplex City is deeper and more complex than anyone imagined,” stated Michael Smith, CEO of Mind Candy Design, in a press statement released this past week. You don’t have to look very hard to get a sense of what Smith is talking about, as one of the hot new features of the newly renovated web site is the new “Story So Far” section. In this part of the site, information is given that allows all players, whether new to the game or not, a chance to catch up on the events that have taken place so far. It is large in scale and loaded with content, showing that Perplex City isn’t just puzzle cards and blogs.

PCAG: London

February 28, 2006 / Guy Parsons

Mind Candy, in conjunction with the Perplex City Academy, ran their first Games in London on Saturday. The widely anticipated urban scavenger hunt unleashed impromptu choirs and conga lines across the capital, earning a wave of acclaim from over 200 participants.

The games – within the ‘reality’ of Perplex City, but unrelated to the mystery of the missing cube – were first announced in early January, and the Mind Candy team were deluged with applications from over eight hundred would-be players. The numbers were eventually whittled down, and 40 lucky six-member teams finally converged upon City Temple from as far afield as Barcelona, Texas and Hong Kong – some sporting uniforms, others neatly equipped with Rollerblades, and all buzzing with nervy excitement. Also in attendance were a gaggle of reporters and a volunteer crew of Game Rangers, who patrolled the streets and ran events throughout the day.

Perplex City Lands in America

January 30, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Perplex City will be taking another leap forward in the very near future, as the PXC universe will be on display at the Toy Fair in New York City from February 12-15 (Booth #6160, for those interested on visiting). Mind Candy Design, the creators of the card-based Alternate Reality Game, are currently putting together a media blitz for American audiences — a new press release is heralding the “launch of Perplex City in North America.”

While the cards have been available at select U.S. toy stores for months, Mind Candy CEO Michael Smith promises that they will make it “much easier to get access to our cards in North America, so everyone now has the opportunity to get immersed in Perplex City.â€ With an increase in the number of retailers selling the puzzle cards, the community of 13,000 registered at the Perplex City forums should see a surge of American players in the coming months.

The world of PXC keeps expanding — there is now a player-generated map of Perplex City in the style of Google Maps, and the aforementioned PXC Forums are full of activity. With the upcoming live events in New York and London coming soon, it looks like 2006 will be another big year for Sente and his cast of characters.

ARGFest NYC 2005 Resurrected!

December 23, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Just in time for the holiday season comes the online release of the ARGFest NYC 2005 DVD “How Do You Like Your Reality?”. Consisting of two torrent files (hosted by GreyLodge), the release was made possible by Dave Szulborski and Abacus Video Productions.

The files (available for download with your favorite .torrent program) include all of the presentations that took place at the Pennsylvania Hotel during the three day event, including:

* Perplex City by Mind Candy Ltd (with Michael Smith and Adrian Hon)
* The Art of the Heist by the PM team (with Mike Monello, Brian Cain, Brian Clark, Matt Fischvogt, Jim Gunshanan, Gabriel Georgeian, and Dave Szulborski)
* MetaCortechs by the PM team (with Steve Peters, Krystyn Wells, Brooke Thompson, and Sean Stacey)
* There is No Such Thing as an ARG (by special guest speaker Jane McGonigal)

There is a section which includes various pictures from ARG Fest NYC 2005, most of which were submitted by the attendees, as well as a “few special surprises!” So, if you missed the event, or simply want to reminisce, now is your chance to get your hands on these recordings.

By the way, in this writer’s humble opinion, what better way to introduce your friends and family to the wonderful world of ARG than by stuffing their stocking with a DVD copy of these presentations?

Mind Candy for the Game Summit

December 13, 2005 / Yulia Mostovoy

Travel back with me to the early days of November, when the air was crisp, the leaves were turning, and Adrian Hon (of Mind Candy and Perplex City fame) was giving a talk about ARGs at the Montreal International Game Summit. Bursting with optimistic joy, I set out early that morning, got hopelessly lost, wandered around in befuddlement for an hour, concluded that the address I was looking for didn’t actually exist, and eventually was directed to the right location, at which point the ARG gods decided that they’d mocked me enough for one day, because I arrived just in time to catch the beginning of Adrian’s presentation.