Charade of the Dead
From CIRCA
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Contents |
Overview
Something has gone wrong with the tar sand refinery facilities in North Alberta. We report hordes of monsters coming down South, and the first target is Edmonton. You are on the front line to stop their advance, but for now, you must get through the night yourself. Facilities and building on the University of Alberta campus provide the perfect opportunity to gather material to aid you in your adventure.
Charade of the Dead is a locative game where you must scan QR code in specific nodes provided by the the Layar application. Scan those codes to get words (items) and find their common association (craft the item) to get the word (combined item) you need to get through the night. For example, the story might need you to help a fellow survivor from hypothermia, but the solution is not provided. However, the map indicates that the nodes for this challenge are located at the Biochemistry Lab and at the Emily Murphey House where you respectively scan the words ??matches?? and ??scrap wood??. How those two items might help you find a solution to the challenge?
Combine objects by combining words. Find the solution to the
scavenger hunt charade by crafting the appropriate to survive
another night!
- Survival game in a zombie-apocalypse setting
- Gameplay mechanics based on ??crafting?? items based on the QR
codes users gather
- Narrative embedded with an environment-awareness discourse on oil
exploitation
- Hall of Fame showing the names of players who survived through
all challenges
Project Planning*
What's the point of the project? Who are the stakeholders?The stakeholders of this project include the FarPlay platform, theGRAND research network and the Office of Sustainability (or otherorganization set on environment consciousness-raising).
FarPlay platform: Since this project taps heavily in the culture
of gamers in terms of fiction (zombies) and game play mecahnics
(collecting, crafting, high stakes challenges), it has the
potential of increasing gamers' attention on the FarPlay
platform and ultimately, get media coverage necessary to increase
the number of people interested in contributing to the locative
gaming project.
GRAND research network: Any form of public interest towards
Charade of the Dead will translate into further acknowledgement of
the team that will create it as well as the research network that
will provide the resources to fund it. Additionally, the creation
of the game also provide an opportunity to test the game design
framework that the team already engineered that may result in a
published paper or conference talk. If we reach outside interests,
the game could migrate from the Far Play platform into the hands of
a small scale studio that could help make a ??app?? version of it,
resulting in another to extend public acknowledgement of the GRAND
research network and the team behind the original ideas.
Office of Sustainability (or other organization set on
environment consciousness-raising): Since the initial game's
narrative heavily focuses on a zombie apocalypse that finds its way
into the savage exploitation of non-renewable and
environment-damaging on a global scale, this might attract the
attention of consciousness-raising organization that focuses on
such issues. Should we decide to engage the issue more deeply
during the design process, we could involve such organization to
provide data and statistics that could be embedded in the
game's fiction in the form of complementary information or as
the origin of the game's challenges. This involvement could
help bring more attention to the game and environment at the same
time.
Since the heart of this project lies in the testing of the game
design framework and the promotion of the FarPlay platform, efforts
should be mustered to make locative game that works well, keep it
simple and reaches an end. The main objective is to make an
engaging locative game that gamers can ??get?? easily. If this
works, the project would be much more interesting to present in
academic events as an example of successful locative game made in
an University. All effort towards adding consciousness-raising
content should come afterwards if resources and interest by
organization is there. We don't want this aspect to be a burden
for the initial game design.
Persona Tests
Persona 1 - Zach Romero: Zach is based in Edmonton and is what wecan call a ??power gamer??. He plays a lot of videogames ontraditional consoles and he is always up to date in regards to thelatest tendencies and newest products related to gaming culture.This knowledge comes from online gaming publications such as Kotakuand Gamespot. From those news outlets, he heard that the Universityof Alberta developed a mobile game using locative technology thatrequires users' wits and urban exploration skills to survive azombie apocalypse scenario. Living in Edmonton and owning an iPhonedevice, Zach's interest was picked by the game and he decidedto try it. The game accompanies his daily routine as he scans QRcodes near him and makes quick detours to reach those that falloutside where his commuting habits bring him. In the evening, hetries to complete challenges with the words he got from the QRcodes by solving the charade.
Persona 2 - Janey Raimie: Janey Raimie is a student from the
University of Alberta. She is not really a gamer: she possesses a
single outdated game console that is not used often. However,
Janey, like most students, has a smartphone that allows him to got
on the net and use augmented reality applications. Janey is curious
about new technologies and what she can do with them, but has never
really tried locative applications before. Through the
University's news outlet, she hears about a locative game that
uses her phone to access a QR code-based series of challenges while
following a zombie apocalypse-themed narrative. Janey is intrigued
by this concept and decides to install the game and try it for a
while. She does not go out of her way to scan QR codes too much,
but having tried the game, she knows more about how locative
application work and she will apply this new knowledge with her
phone use in the future.
Personage 3 - Alex Johnson: Alex is a resident of Edmonton and
works in the city's downtown. Alex is married and has a happy
life communing to work in the weekdays and staying at home on
weekends. He owns game consoles and mobile devices that allows him
to check his email and social media information wherever he goes.
One day, he notices a weird signs on the front of one of the
buildings he often goes to an decides to take a closer look. Under
the sign is a small paragraph that says that this sign is part of a
locative game called Charade of the Dead where users scan codes to
complete challenges in a zombie-apocalypse narrative setting. It
just so happens that Alex is a big fan of zombie-related media such
as The Walking Dead and Resident Evil, the game's premises has
him hooked. Owning a mobile device, he signs up for an account and
starts integrating the game to his daily routine, aiming to achieve
completion and confirm, once again, that he would be alright in the
event of a zombie disaster.
Persona 3 - Alex Johnson: Alex is a resident of Edmonton and works
in the city's downtown. Alex is married and has a happy life
communing to work in the weekdays and staying at home on weekends.
He owns game consoles and mobile devices that allows him to check
his email and social media information wherever he goes. One day,
he notices a weird signs on the front of one of the buildings he
often goes to an decides to take a closer look. Under the sign is a
small paragraph that says that this sign is part of a locative game
called Charade of the Dead where users scan codes to complete
challenges in a zombie-apocalypse narrative setting. It just so
happens that Alex is a big fan of zombie-related media such as The
Walking Dead and Resident Evil, the game's premises has him
hooked. Owning a mobile device, he signs up for an account and
starts integrating the game to his daily routine, aiming to achieve
completion and confirm, once again, that he would be alright in the
event of a zombie disaster.
Survey of Ressources
The creation team should ask the help of the Office of
Sustainability in order to gather the necessary empirical
information that could make the backbone of this part of the
project. In the event that their are interested in getting involved
in the project, they could counter-verify the final version of the
narrative to confirm if the fact presented are correct and if the
game could be integrated to a large environment-awareness plan on
their part. Complementary information on global warming and soil
contamination that would not directly be part of the narrative
could also be implemented in the final project to fulfill that
purpose.
In order to make this idea possible, we will need a server onto
which host the website as well as a programmer in order to build
the basic framework the fictional blog. The website is meant to be
static so that all users have the same experience while trying to
complete the challenge.