INTERVIEW WITH URBAN GAME GURU

Image by fiahless via Flickr

This is an interview I filmed for Picnic in New York together with my good buddy Kevin Slavin. Kevin is the founder of Area Code and is an extremely smart and creative dude. He develops everything from Urban Games to ARGs, to Cross Media games, and more. Have a look at the interview and definitely check him out at Picnic in Amsterdam this year. In the interview he talks about the Augmented City and how information technologies need to simplify rather than complicate the information we generate around a city.

Dark Night Viral Campaign

Many people wonder how Viral Campaigning works. Many beleive that all you have to do is make a funny video woth a cat and that will spread the message. Sorry, that was about 2-3 years ago. The truth is nowadays you have to create a Multi Media Alternate Reality Game. Otherwise known as an ARG. There are puzzles spread over the internet, areas to communicate with other players, real world phone calls and emails. This is how you create a Viral. Not just a 30 sec. clip but an allround Media experience, puzzle and immersion. These are the types of projects that my students have been developing over the last few years. One of the first of my DVTG students created on his own, with no budget, an alternate reality game that spread from temples in Thailand, lockers in London, phone calls from New York and the Vatican. Using the tools available all over the internet with free sites, this is how Alternate Reality Games are spread. Below we see a video of the Dark Night Campaign, and there are 2 of the Transformers virals that were spread. Those videos spread from the transformers is called, "The Rabbit Hole". Or the first video trigger that leads one into the Alternate Reality Game.

Milo Xbox of AI friends

Xbox and Steven Spielberg have gotten into a project called "Milo". It is scarely like A.I. that was made by Spielberg, and really shows how far the "Tamagochi" Phenomenon can happen. When we feel lonely our laptops and our games are our new friends. Scary and sick but this is how it is going. But does Milo have a soul? Do these inatimate items that we had as kids, such as the blanket, doll, or star wars figure we loved have a soul? A new generation of imaginary Virtual Friends is about to occur. Get ready, because everything ios about to change! Thanks for the tip GabeB!

PowerPoint Karaoke

Have you played PowerPoint Karaoke yet? Ok this is one for the real nerds and geeks. The rules are simple. 1. Have a powerpoint or slideshow that no one knows yet. 2. A presentor tries to present the Powerpoint or Slideshow and make a coherent (and often humoruos) presentation. 3. (Optional) Presentor must take a shot after every second slide or other interval for drinking game varioation.

I first saw this played at Kinnernet09. I realised this is an excellent game to use in my presentation techniques course at the HKU. Unfortunately there is a lack of powerpoints created for Powerpoint Karaoke. so I had my students make a bunch of them. Here is a whole slew of free Karaoke presenations that you can use with your friends or co-workers that they made. Just click on one of the links and start playing.

Free Karaoke Powerpoints online: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16220300/postit http://www.slideshare.net/bartArtist/cats-and-rubbish http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=AuYcrjFv2QM%3d http://www.slideshare.net/wallece/explanation http://www.slideshare.net/pyrojester/barney1 http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=31l6lZZ7GNY%3d http://www.slideshare.net/kiwein/what-if-1548745 http://www.slideshare.net/job.jutten/karaoke-job-jutten-1548431 http://www.slideshare.net/Jajaben/dieet http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=rEiUri5sSZg%3d http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=ib8OupLbxdU%3d http://www.slideshare.net/guest08c0aca/presentatie-gabe-v-liesther http://www.slideshare.net/cedecode/sokken http://www.slideshare.net/rajivkrijnen/karaoke-rajiv http://www.slideshare.net/ramirpascal/guess-the-conmnection http://www.slideshare.net/Rikderooij/toes-they-carry-us http://www.slideshare.net/Hobsbawm/tony-victorian-dvtg2 http://www.slideshare.net/trancilian/10picstory http://www.slideshare.net/eric423/bussen-buschauffeurs http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=54E8a2F7zbg%3d http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=CQ8oxveTF%2bk%3d

GAMES GAMES GAMES!!!

Next week I am attending the HKU Design for Virtual Theater and Games EXPO in Utrecht at the Huis aan de Werf. It will be a great show on June 18 and 19. Don't miss it!

For an example there are a couple free games to try out that some of my students made. Felisberto de Brito has made eggCademy and Ziggy Naumann has made Hotel Luma. Both are in the running for the Festival of Games 2009 award from the NLGD. Go and check them out if you can't handle the humpday this week. Enjoy!

UPDATE:

Felis just emailed me that he has an english version of his game online to enjoy. http://eggcademy.com

Ask Frasco Likes Grow Flash Games

I'm sitting here after dinner and @askfrasco is setting next to me on the couch. I asked her if she played flash games online. "Not really" she said. So I told her about one fun game, Grow. Have a look for yourself. Once you play it 2 or 3 times you will get it, and then you can spend hours on the different games. Enjoy free flash games!

Interview at Webcom

At Webcom I gave an interview after my talk about the virtual immortality project. It goes on for a while, but it was a fun interview to do.

webcom : Gabe McIntyre by amicalmant

For More interviews from Webcom check Christian Aubry's page.