Contrasting Risk and Pandemic
I just finished six weeks of teaching two different classes of Game Design at Parsons as part of their Summer Academy and SPACE programs. to students ages 14-22. It was a tremendous experience.
I also set up a blog for the class that outlines the curriculum and syllabus for the class. It also functioned as an effective communication device for the students to communicate with me and each other.
I am designing and producing an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called “4th Wall” for my Thesis project. My thesis concept is to introduce casual players to the ARG experience. I am aiming for teen to young adult people who have either never heard of an ARG or are relatively new to the idea. I have had tremendous help from Eric Chung – a first year MFA student in the Design and Technology Department at Parsons.
I cannot put too much detail about it on the web as one of the main tactics of the game is to conduct web-based research and I do not want to risk players finding information that could spoil the game. However, I can discuss the narrative of the game and show some of the assets I have designed for it.
The Narrative
The story of the game is about a reporter working for the Daily Informant news site named Paige Stein. Paige has been working on a story that she insists will be groundbreaking when it is published. However, she goes missing and her apartment is burned to the ground before that can happen. Her editor, Sam King has found a piece of evidence that may unlock the secret of her story and disappearance in the wreckage of her apartment. He enlists the players to help him fill in the blanks of the story.
Assets
The assets I have created are for ficticious companies and organizations that help create the alternate reality in which the game lives.
Tyger Pharmaceuticals – A large pharmaceutical company
The Daily Informant – an online news source
TheyKnowWeKnow – a paranoid conspiracy theory blog
Metatonic Society – a zealous self-help organization
Other assets that are still in development are several AS3-based games and puzzles that players need to solve in order to complete the game and a couple of multimedia elements that will pop up along the way. I am hoping to launch an Alpha Test by early next month.
This is a simple application I built in AS3 for my Espionage game. The Application uses allows users to write out location clues using 4 parameters.
Click here for .swf file.
The Application then uses Twitter to generate obscured clues and then posts them to a blog that players use to communicate.
User Scenario Video – Edited with Erica Osher
Parsons developed an iPhone game based on the Mannahatta Project by Dr. Eric Sanderson at the Wildlife Conservation Society. I helped to design the initial prototype of the game with Katrina Bekessy, Mike Edwards and Kyle Lee working under the direction of Colleen Macklin at Parsons.
I also directed and produced this user-scenario video to promote the game and produced the music and audio for the video.
An independent Study with David Carroll and Colleen Macklin at Parsons. I worked with Dong Yoon Park and Kelly Nichols to develop a game using he Waag Society’s 7scenes software running on Nokia NSeries phones.
The main impetus for the project was to explore new ways to design and prototype locative games to help educate High School-age children about the Dutch Settlers of Manhattan in the early 1600’s. Players were playing as an advance scouting team gathering resources for the main settlement teams that are arriving by ship.
Each team of settlers has different needs. Teams must explore the play-space to gather the required resources. They may also trade with other teams to attain the needed resources. Click here for a full PDF of the project.
A board-game about getting ahead at work, by any means necessary. Designed with Eric Chung and Danny Chang. Click here for a PDF of rules and game board.
A Game about Getting Ahead
I had a session last Friday to paper prototype some of the game mechanics of the game I am developing as my final project for my Interactive Major Studio.
The game is based on the real life experiences of a CIA agent working abroad in the 70′s and 80′s. The goal of the game is for two teams of three people to compete for pieces intelligence. These pieces are unlocked by deciphering a combination of online and on-site clues give the locations of the intelligence.
Here is a video of the prototyping process.
Working with fellow students at Parsons CDT department to develop my espionage game.
I am developing a Big Urban/Alternate Reality Game for a final project. The game is inspired by many conversations I have had with a retired CIA Agent who worked in the 70′s and 80′s in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The game is based on the Trade Craft of Intelligence Agents working in that era.
A piece of intelligence planted in the Park
A Player locating a piece of intelligence
Counter Intelligence
