The Random Lift Button
more chance-generated experiences
(photo by Chris Speed)
Chance-generated tours could also be produced by the means of transportation one uses... Reading the very inspiring Pasta&Vinegar blog I came across the wonderful Random Lift Button project by Chris Speed. The button takes your decision in what level to go to.
The Golden Age of Wireless
(fighting cable-salad)
Thomas Dolby was quite ahead of his time coming up with the album title The Golden Age of Wireless in 1982. And although there is all this wireless technology nowadays, the age of cable-salad (as you say in German) ain´t over yet. You still need a charging unit for each of all those little mobile devices. Packing my bag (I will be on holiday tomorrow) this was the following: A recharger for my GPS Mission phone, one for my private phone, one for my other GPS device, one for my digital camera and one for my labtop. On top some more cables to conect all these machine with each other.
Germany by Chance
On the Making of computer-generated missions
Following the computer-generated Wappen-missions is a bit like playing „Germany by Chance“. Last week I toured Allensbach, Radolfzell and Ludwigshafen like this. And although I´ve been to all these towns the missions took me to places I haven´t been before. I noticed, that the missions usually start near the station of each town and wondered, how the program works that generates these routes. This is what I learned from Jörn:
Berlin by Chance
Played some more computer-generated missions. Of course it is quite another thing than following a human-generated mission and I can´t wait to play more of those. But I´ve always been fascinated by chance-generated experiences, too. A project I´ve once done together with Brian House for „Loving Berlin“ - festival was a game called Berlin by Chance.
Virtual Mushrooms
Designing landscape-specific missions
The point of GPS-based games is that it involves the players movement.
There are site-specific games like GPS mission, where the player has to go to a very specific location on earth. The places the player visits while playing are part of the game. Maybe the game tells a story that is set in these places or makes the player solve riddles on location. Sometimes there even is a little „treasure“ hidden at this very location as it is known from Geocaching .
Jump around
Problems starting a mission?
>
(Me jumping around)
The rain finally paused a few times so I could do some playtesting. Trying to find the entry point of a mission I had designed the other day (5 Places to Eat Ice Cream) I made quite a fool out of myself.
My mistake: I tried starting the mission in the radar-mode (map mode).
Shadows on the wall
First mission in Vienna
„The Third Man“ (1949) is a wonderful movie set in postwar Vienna. In the beginning of the story Harry Lime (starring Orson Welles) is burried. His friend Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) thinks that Harry was murdered. Looking for the murder he not only finds out that Harry was a criminal, but also witnesses that his former buddy is still alive...
Five Places to...
First adventures with my new phone
I finally got a modern phone and made it go online! Although it was way beyond midnight I went outside to test it. And within no time GPS mission was running and I could start collecting some gold. A nice walk around the block.
The next day I went into town to try the „Konstanz Wappen“ mission . In case you haven´t come across the Wappen-missions - it´s a huge series of computer generated missions (located in Germany only).
