In this awesome new street game, small teams compete to collect Kensington properties and develop them into expensive lofts and swanky coffee shops. But watch out for the team of angry locals, bent on thwarting your efforts in an attempt to save the market from certain doom.

What: With your teammates, you’ll run around Kensington market, scouting properties, strategizing, and negotiating with other teams. Your objective? Build fancy stores, raise property values, make $$$! Or, if you are super lucky, you will be the secret team of locals, charged with protecting the market from these evil developments. Along the way there will be art, vicious debates, and possibly an Apple Store.

When: 2pm, Saturday March 6, 2010

Where: Bellevue Square (that little park in Kensington market), around a sidewalk chalk map of the surrounding neighbourhood.

How long: The game will proceed in 5 rounds, lasting about an hour.

What to bring: A digital camera (camera phones are cool too, as long as they aren’t super low res)

Questions? kate (at) k4t3 (dot) org

[RSVP here] (Facebook) or email kate (at) k4t3 (dot) org

Stick around afterward to discuss the game, and help improve it!

(We’re preparing this game for Come Out & Play 2010 (http://comeoutandplay.org/), the awesome street game festival in NYC!)

Sharedpatio.com is a concept site that kind-of sort-of explores the ideas that (a) no thoughts are unique, and (b) everyone is sad and alone, especially people who use the internet. The site tells you that someone, somewhere is thinking the same thing as you (maybe); just between you and me, though, this is probably not true unless you’re thinking “god does not exist” or “I love you.”

I generally don’t pour through these whisperings, as that would be a profound abuse of my position as well as probably pretty boring. But it is interesting to look at a few and get an idea of how people are using the site. Which is interesting, because this is people typing into a textbox without a clear practical function. This is not like sharing a confession, or searching for something, it’s… whatever someone wants to think. But the interface is familiar, and that it makes it easy.

What do people type into the textbox? Disregarding the trolls, the two popular behaviours are to declare something to the world, and to desperately seek an escape from destiny. The popular words in the lower left of the homepage (which have varied only slightly since the site began) are also fairly illustrative.

In any case, why not try it out?

Come join us again as we play the Sport of Kings/Queens on the streets and footpaths of central Fremantle! It’s just like normal Capture the Flag — except in the middle of town. Hurry through the cappuccino strip, evading the other teams’ guards. Run with flag in hand past King’s Square. Plan ambushes with your teammates, using Freo’s malls, laneways, nooks and crannies to your advantage.

Why? To have fun, of course!

SUNDAY AUGUST 2, 4PM

KING’S SQUARE, FREMANTLE (see map below)

If you’d like to come, an RSVP on the Facebook page is appreciated.

The Game, in Short

Capture the Flag is a classic outdoor game traditionally played by kids, and more recently by people like you on urban terrain. A large area is divided into territories for two teams. The teams compete to sneak into the opposing territory and steal the enemy flag. Be careful if you’re on the offensive, though, because opposing players can tag you while you’re in their territory.

We’ll meet at 4PM to divide everyone into teams, and explain the rules. You’ll get a handout with rules and game map. Teams will then place their flags, the game will start, and it’ll last an hour.

More Stuff

• Player Identification. Players get to wear snazzy sweatbands with their team colour. If you’d prefer not to muss up your hair, you could wear it around your arm, I guess.
• Tagging. Once in the enemy’s territory, a player may tagged by a member of an opposing team (one-handed touch, please!) The tagged player must return to their team’s territory before continuing.
• Assassins. A few players get to be assassins – these special players get to tag enemy players while in enemy territory, and can only be tagged while carrying the flag. Oooh!
• Flag Placement. Flags may only be placed in certain pre-designated spots, which will be marked on the game map.
• SMS Score Updates. Did I mention you can receive SMS updates every time someone scores? You totally can.
• Game Area. The game area is shown below, along with the meeting location:

Come Out and Play, an annual festival of pervasive games, was held last weekend in NYC. I was lucky enough to attend in three capacities: as a game designer, as a volunteer helper, and as a player. Though this meant I didn’t get to play as many of the 33 games as I would have liked, it was a great joy to get a multifaceted look at a pretty fantastic event.

Although COaP seems to be billed primarily as a “street games” festival, there was quite variety of game types and venues. In particular, three prominent themes stuck out for me: games played on the streets, incorporating the midtown environment and frequently employing spy-style mechanics; creative new sports played in Central Park; and ambient/spectacular social games played at one of the several parties.

I was primarily occupied with the first set of games, which operated — spectacularly — out of Times Square. In an amazing bit of serendipity, a chunk of Broadway running several blocks had been cordoned off for pedestrians as part of some experimental program, and it was here that the COaP organizers planted a large white dome as an HQ. Such a prominent location had the effect of drawing in a whole truckload of interested passers-by, and allowed the games operating out of there to merge with the flow of the city in a really organic and surprising way. Somewhere out there is a photo of a US soldier jumping rope with an enormous grin on his face (during Diva Dutch). As a volunteer, I explained the premise of the festival to a diverse range of inquiring pedestrians, from mothers with their children to bizarre old men (one of whom, inexplicably, offered to pick me up and carry me around for a minute, and then did so. Gotta love New York.)

The first game I played, Stalk Exchange, actually took me to Grand Central station, where I wandered through the atrium while being directed by a controller via cell phone. The controller oversaw my actions from a balcony, while I was made to surreptitiously follow and monitor other players being directed by their own controllers (at least, suspected players — we weren’t sure who else was playing, and I severely embarrassed myself by harassing at least one completely uninvolved bystander.) Although a little confusing, the game was a blast, and the feeling of being a “real” spy in a busy train station was incredibly enlivening. Somewhat amusingly, the spectre of external factors that forever haunts pervasive games reared its head late in the game, and a crusty security guard forced my teammate down from her (totally legal) perch. A potent reminder.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience much of Saturday, as I was preparing for our own game, Paparazzi. Amazingly, despite the sudden pouring rain, a full roster of 40 players showed up stayed — which seems pretty illustrative of the player enthusiasm I saw throughout the weekend. Preparation for the game in the days prior to the festival was a saga unto itself; one of the interesting things about designing a game for midtown Manhattan is that virtually nowhere else in the world provides a suitable testing ground. The throngs of Times Square are an exemplar of location-specific design constraints. Our game, which relied on surveillance and ambush tactics, required a significantly reduced playing area, and some brightly coloured costumes so players would stand out.

In the evening I played Groove Moove, an extremely simple game that managed to create enormously high levels of enthusiasm. Two teams of players competed in convincing random pedestrians to dance across four crosswalks. The game ran twice, which was helpful, since in the first instance I think players were still working up the nerve to make idiots of themselves. A lot of people would simply avoid eye contact as we tried to persuade them to do the moonwalk with us. On the other hand, a handful of people absolutely loved it. For tourists, possibly, this is the quintessential New York experience: completely random nonsense. Seeing a groom and bride in full costume do the twist for us exemplified the value of running games out of Times Square. And when passers-by were captivated, players became even moreso, feeding off their thrill to produce some pretty palpable joy.

On Sunday, after a too-short interval playing Ran Some Ransom (one of those basic but brilliant ideas that makes you wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?”), I helped out with Train Mafia. This game was a slightly modified version of classic Mafia (aka Werewolf), the primary caveat being that it was played on a subway heading to and from the Bronx. To make things interesting, two interrelated games with different rules were played simultaneously on two different cars; when a player was ousted from game A, they’d proceed into game B. For me, simply shifting the venue onto a moving train actually gave the game a significantly different feel from other games of Mafia. There was something about the constantly changing scenery, as well as the conspicuously public nature of the proceedings, and just the vibe of a subway car — basically, the experience just had a drastically different aesthetic. It was like a subway party. There’s something to be said for the simple choice of venue or context as a meaningful part of game design.

By the accounts I heard, the Central Park sport-style games were particularly popular, and one of those — Circle Rules Football — took home the award for Best in Fest. The awards were actually a new feature this year, and although they add a few extra data points, I’m kind of skeptical about their value. Such a formal component seems out of place within such an organic festival, particularly as such a jampacked roster ensures that (a) you’re comparing apples to oranges, and (b) no one could possibly have had a complete sense of everything that was going on that weekend. Train Mafia, for instance, finished approximately as the awards ceremony itself was wrapping up. In this respect, the huge number of games could have been seen as something of a liability; overlapping back-to-back game schedules means less attention for each game, and more difficulty getting to experience one’s picks. For example, I didn’t get to check out any of the Central Park games. On the other hand, I can understand the need to scale the festival to attract increasingly large audiences. What’s going on here is novel enough that I expect striking the right balance between size and accessibility is enormously challenging. What’s important, ultimately, is that a whole lot of players had unique, amazing experiences — some of whom will no doubt be inspired to go off and make games of their own.

The winning teams:

First place: Red Jaguars

Second place: Bay Area

Third Place: High Fructose Corn Syrup

We owe a big thanks to our volunteers in New York, especially since the game design required a high level of involvement from them, and thus could not have done this without their help:

Aaron Krasnov
Catherine Blanksby
Christoph Schmaltz
and particularly Emily Kornblut

Also a huge thanks to our Toronto play test volunteers: Luke Walker, Istvan Dugalin, Helen Li, Jo-Anne Raynes, Raymond Goldie, Wes Handren, Eddie Farrell and Trevor Haldenby.

See you next year, Manhattan!

Paparazzi is a GPS-driven cat-and-mouse game played on city streets; a game of paranoia, ambushes, and scandalous photos. It premiered at the 2009 Come Out and Play festival in NYC.

In Paparazzi, players (in teams of 3-4) act out the age old battle between the camera-wielding paparazzi and the celebrities they stalk. As celebrities, players must be quick and clever in order to steer clear of shutterbugs. As paparazzi, they must be sneaky and organized. Will there be scandals? You bet. Will there be awkward photos of stunned-looking people, faces contorted, arms flailing wildly? Most certainly!

At the start, a few random players are assigned the role of celebrity, and the rest become the paparazzi. The celebrity’s goal is simple: to make it to a variety of party spots appearing and disappearing throughout the city. However, their positions are being tracked by the paparazzi. The paparazzo’s goal is get a good shot of a celebrity, using their digital camera or cameraphone. But a good photo can’t be produced by aimlessly chasing after celebrities. The paparazzi must use their technological edge to setup ambushes: the seemingly innocent bystander blending in with the crowd; the cunning cameraman waiting just around the corner, ready to pounce. When a celebrity falls to a camera, the paparazzo wielding it takes the celebrity’s place. The battle is neverending!

Reports from players:
NYC Game Industry
Playborhood

Documentation

Why? To have fun, of course!

Event page on “The FaceBook”

THE DEETS

WHEN: 4PM, Saturday May 16

MEETING POINT: King’s Square, William St, Fremantle

At 4pm, we’ll divide players into teams, re-explain the rules, and hand out maps. Teammates will also have a chance to strategize and exchange mobile numbers. Then the teams move to their respective territories, and the game begins. The game will last an hour or so (to be lengthened or shortened depending on circumstances.)

GAME AREA

These boundaries are subject to change — we may adjust the size depending on the number of players coming, for example. For that reason, if you plan to come it would be really helpful if you could RSVP on the Facebook event. Once we finalize this, we’ll put a printable PDF up here. We’ll also photocopy a bunch of copies to hand out just before the game.

RULES

Like the boundaries, these may be adjusted. We’ll go over everything again just before the game.

• Player Identification. All players will be given a colourful ribbon to wear around the arm, which will indicate their team. Everyone must keep these on while playing.
• Flag Placement. Flags must be placed at a street corner or large clearing. They must not be placed at the edge of the game area, and they must not be placed next to any large objects (mailboxes, trees, etc.)
• Flag Guarding. Players must remain at least 100 feet away from their team’s flag at all times.
• Tagging. If tagged while in the opposing team’s territory, a player must return directly to their team’s territory. Tagging is done with a single-handed touch; no grabbing, pushing, or anything disrespectful, please.
• Neutral Territory. Market St and South Tce are neutral territory (noone can be tagged on them), but the footpaths on either side are not.
• Rule Enforcement. We will have a couple of volunteer referrees — but remember that this is all just for fun, and fun is more fun when everyone plays together.

CTF-ON-THE-STREETS IN OTHER CITIES
Toronto
New York
Vancouver

Edgar of the Web was a Twitter/SMS-enabled game developed for Edge of the Web, a web conference in Perth. With multiple stages and several layers of engagement, it provided a unique twist on the typical conference experience, without taking the focus away from the event.

The game had two stages: a pre-conference Twitter battle where players competed to propagate their memes throughout the Twittersphere; and the actual conference game, where attendees built groups using the unique cards they were assigned. The culmination of the game took place at the evening’s WebJam event, where the two top teams duked it out over a round of powerpoint karaoke. The winners received fabulous Crumpler bags.

The two stages had differing design goals. Twitter was selected as the medium for the pre-conference game because of its incredible popularity within the Perth web community. This was also something of an experiment; to our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has used Twitter as a game platform. The conference game was designed to be extremely unobtrusive and easy to play, to fit in with the hustle and bustle one normally finds at a conference. A satirical take on the web industry provided the thematic glue that tied all of these experiences together.

View the Twitter game homepage.

View conference game homepage.

Check out the final results.

Apparatus

At the conference, players were given unique cards that assigned them to a variety of roles with various effects.

Players could also collect super-special “friends with celebrities” cards to score bonus points.

Players added stickers to their conference lanyards to let others know they were in the game, and what kind of card they had.

Video announcements and updates, like this one, were played in the lecture theaters prior to breaks throughout the day.

Documentation

The Time-o-Matic Travelator was a cross-media locative game developed for Curtin University’s Open Day, with the intention of showcasing Curtin’s commitment to innovation, as well as the campus itself.

Visitors to Open Day joined the game simply by sending an SMS. From there, they were guided across the campus to perform a variety of challenges that incorporated SMS/WAP clues, prerecorded phone messages, a variety of physical media, and objects in the environment. Players came across these challenges by discovering special business cards distributed through various Open Day venues. Fourteen cards and challenges were available, but players only needed to find and complete six to win a prize. As such, the game promoted non-linear exploration and discovery in the vein of a typical festival experience, while taking players on an enjoyable journey through some of the lesser-known aspects of Curtin. A lightweight and humorous narrative about time travel brought it all together.

View the promotional website.

Apparatus

Players found numerous time traveler business cards scattered across the campus. Each card had a unique puzzle on the back.

Some challenges required players to think outside the box, emphasizing the festival’s “curiosity” theme. This card had writing that only appeared when held near an ultraviolet lamp.

Many challenges encouraged players to pay close attention to their surroundings, and the campus itself. Here, a sculpture served as an important clue.

Tying the sci-fi premise into Curtin’s commitment to innovation in a plausible fashion was a major design goal. The fake research poster here was posted alongside other, real posters.

Flyers distributed across campus, like this one, served as challenge clues. But they also built connections between the time travel theme and real activities at Curtin that would be of interest to potential students.

Some of the game materials were particularly prominent. This poster was hung in the bookstore’s front display area.

Silicon Breach was an ambient social game developed for Barcamp 2 in Perth, which pitted attendees against one another in a parody of Web 2.0 business, where the primary currency is ideas, and the other primary currency is… currency.

Attendees who joined the game were each given a unique, secret “idea.” They were also assigned to one of three fictional Web 2.0 startups. Players could help score their company venture capital (points) by sharing their ideas with others in the same company, or stealing ideas from those in other companies. However, they were stymied in their efforts by the fact that they were never told who their teammates were. The game ran throughout the full day. It was designed to help attendees meet and break the ice.

The title is a play on Silicon Beach, a phrase sometimes used to described Perth.

View the game site.

Documentation