Tag: six to start (Page 3 of 3)

NEWSFLASH: “Major” Charlie Higson and James Bond are Not Dead

October 10, 2008 / Michael Andersen

The Shadow War logo For followers of The Shadow War alternate reality game, the success and excitement generated by the experience might convince them that The Shadow War was the game with the golden gun. Charlie Higson, the author of the Young Bond series, kicked off the alternate reality game with a little help from Six to Start at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, launching the main game website YoungBond.com. The first mission went live on August 27, and players were taken on a worldly, online adventure that spanned seven missions.

On Wednesday, October 6, players faced their final mission. Players supporting the OGPU and SIS raced through the Alpine castle, Schloss Donnerspitze, desperate to save captured British soldier “Major” Charlie Higson, James Bond, and themselves from a bomb. Higson regularly appeared within the game to offer hints and encourage the players in their race to the finish. Prior to the final mission, Higson stated that “it’s the final stage of the game this week, and a chance for all those kids to come together in a race against time and finish the story. I’m really looking forward to playing a part in it and appearing live in the game as a British agent. I just hope the kids solve the problems in time or I risk being liquidated by a fiendish foreign power!”

Upon the successful completion of the final mission, you can see the obviously grateful Charlie Higson thanking his rescuers in this video.

You can still replay the first six missions online, and according to the Danger Society News, there is still more content to discover: 20 copies of By Royal Command include a special variant codeword that unlocks additional content for the third mission. To my knowledge, none of the variant books have been located yet.

You can also view a portion of the live event with Charlie Higson, sans sound, on ustream.tv. It gets quite interesting at 5:42.

Puffin Books Announces “The Shadow War”: Young Bond ARG for Young Players

August 11, 2008 / Michael Andersen

The Shadow War logo Puffin Books announced the launch of The Shadow War, an alternate reality game set in the Bond universe. The game was designed by Six to Start and written by Charlie Higson to create a parallel experience for Higson’s newest Young Bond novel, By Royal Command. The series is intended for 9-14 year old children, and has sold over three-quarters of a million copies in the UK alone. Over 35,000 fans of the series are registered as members of The Danger Society over at YoungBond.com. While the Shadow War is intended for children 9 years and older, the young at heart are still permitted to play.

The game is comprised of seven missions spanning seven weeks, culminating in a live event on October 8th featuring Charlie Higson, allowing players to ask questions and influence the game. Each mission takes about an hour, and allows players to work as a British SIS agent or a Soviet OGPU spy, exploring familiar locations. Player decisions will directly influence the outcome of the game. Players can join and leave at any point, and can even switch sides if they choose to defect.

Penguin Group has been experimenting with book publishing, most recently with We Tell Stories, a reimagining of six classic novels using different media created with the help of Six to Start. In addition, Jasper Fforde released an alternate reality game to promote his most recent Thursday Next novel under the Penguin imprint, First Among Sequels.

The first mission for The Shadow War will be revealed by Charlie Higson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on August 23rd. The festival will also feature a panel exploring the future of ARGs including Dan Hon (Six to Start), Alex Fleetwood (Hide & Seek), David Varela (formerly of Mind Candy), and Yomi Ayeni (Expanding Universe).

The quick and dirty: New ARGs pop up, like, everywhere!

July 31, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Truckload of ARGs Don’t mind us — we’re just catching up on the latest round of alternate reality game launches, via the ARGNet tipline/inbox/mailbox. Here is what we know of, in no particular order:

(1) Eklipse Global: We first heard about this game through the LiveJournal blog of staffer Geoff May, and were reminded again of its existence when we picked up our post-ARGFest mail. After sitting at the post office since the 18th of July, the USPS Priority Mail envelope was opened to reveal a letter, and a mysterious message: IF YOU HEAR THE HUM IS TOO LATE!!

The letter notified “ARGN” that the decision committee did not select our marketing campaign bid as the winner. We’d be crushed, had we actually submitted a bid, but since we didn’t, um, yay? Later in the letter from Reinhart, the president of Eklipse Global, he assures us that their decision is not a reflection on our expertise or professionalism, which is a relief, because personally, I’d never work for a company run by a one-name person — and yes, that includes Madonna Inc.

This is only the start of the crazy amount of new ARGs that have appeared out of the chaotic fiction ether in the past few weeks — head on over the jump for the rest of the list.

We Tell Stories: Six Stories, Six Authors, Six Weeks, and then Six to Start

March 25, 2008 / Michael Andersen

Last Tuesday, the UK branch of Penguin Books launched We Tell Stories, a series of six stories based on classic novels. Each story is written by a different author and is retold through a different medium. Last week, Charles Cumming retold John Buchan’s classic tale The Thirty-nine Steps by walking visitors through the tale on Google Maps. Cumming’s rendition, “The 21 Steps”, provided a novel look at the book’s plot as well as the features of Google Maps.

Over the next four days, Toby Litt will retell M.R. James’ Haunted Dolls’ House and Other Ghost Stories in “Slice”. This week’s story plays out through Slice’s blog, as well as her parents’ blog.

The story also includes a Flickr account, a MySpace page, two twitter accounts, and an email address. Amusingly enough, clicking on the email address automatically fills out the email for you with the following.

Subject: I’ve come to save you from the boredom

Dear Slice,

My life is now totally worthless without you in it because…

While these stories are well constructed so far, the real purpose they serve is to whet the viewer’s appetites for the original texts. I know I’ll be heading over to my local library to check out a few of these tales — but if I lived in the UK, I would enter the weekly Author Prize Drawings — you can also win the Penguin Complete Classics Collection, valued at over Â£13,000.

Underpinning the six stories is a seventh tale. Clicking on the white rabbit on the bottom left corner of the main page leads to Treacle and Ink, a blog written by Alice. This underlying story fits within the alternate reality gaming framework, and has already led chelec on a hunt through St Pancras Station. You can read about that experience here or check her bliptv account for videos.

Click Here to check out the stories
Click Here for the thread at unfiction

Rolling Out a Few New Projects: Six to Start and the Channel 4 New Media Lineup

January 10, 2008 / Michael Andersen

Mind Candy may have pulled the plug on Perplex City, but the Hon brothers are back to work at a new company, Six to Start Limited, returning to work on alternate reality gaming. According to Adrian, the name “Six to Start” refers to the classic board games that required players to roll a six before commencing play. Adrian and Dan will be joining forces with James Wallis, the former director of Hogshead Publishing, a hobby-games publisher that you might recognize as one of the expert judges for Let’s Change the Game.

One of the first projects for Six to Start is code-named “The Ministry”, an ARG taking place within a fictional social network. The game is part of Channel 4’s effort to provide engaging educational content to 14-19 year olds. According to a Channel 4 press release, “The Ministry” will be

an online networked game exploring how online privacy and identity apply to real world situations. The game will challenge players to discover how much trust matters online: when you might not know who you’re dealing with, and when information posted online remains persistent and public. Players will network, collaborate and challenge each other from within a fictional social network, using identity as a weapon, and privacy as armor.

In addition to “The Ministry”, Channel 4 will be sponsoring an ARG project by Oil Productions code-named “Route” that focuses on cartography, geography, and genetics, and numerous other cross media experiences. These alternate reality games are part of a larger push by the station to provide educational content to teens through a variety of serious games and new media productions. Alice Taylor, the commissioner for the projects at Channel 4, may be familiar to video game fans through her blog or her work at Kotaku.

Six to Start is currently looking for an experienced Alternate Reality Games producer to round out their staff, although with an application deadline at the end of January, you’d better hurry if you’re interested. As a reminder for our bilingual readers, Jane McGonigal is also looking for a “jr. puppet master” for an upcoming project. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting patiently for a lucky roll of the die to start up one of these exciting new projects.

Tag: six to start (Page 3 of 3)

NEWSFLASH: “Major” Charlie Higson and James Bond are Not Dead

Puffin Books Announces “The Shadow War”: Young Bond ARG for Young Players

The quick and dirty: New ARGs pop up, like, everywhere!

We Tell Stories: Six Stories, Six Authors, Six Weeks, and then Six to Start

Rolling Out a Few New Projects: Six to Start and the Channel 4 New Media Lineup

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