The place João Bordalo calls home

5 games to think about

Posted by bordalix Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:13:00 GMT

Still alive after last week home experiments? Good. Now is time to think about some issues (political & ecological) the best way I know how: by playing with it.

The following is a short compilation of web games from Water Cooler Games and Social Impact Games websites. Play it, share it, think about it:

Home Water Conservation - "Waterbusters" - A game to teach tips for water conservation around the home;

Darfur is Dying - In partnership with the Reebock Human Rights Foundation and the International Crisis Group, mtvU launched the Darfur Digital Activist Content, a competiton briging together student technology and activism to help end the genocide in Darfur. The game is a narrative-based simultaion where the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian, negotiates forces that threated the surevival of his or her refugee camp. It offers a faint glimpse of ewhat it's like for 2.5 million who have been internally displaced by the crisis in Sudan;

McDonald's game - The McDonald's game from Molleindustria. Be sure to try out the Italian version of the website, as a Pope Speaking Generator can be found here;

Cyberbudget-France - The French government has taken a gaming approach to try and find a solution to the country's financial challenges. Budget Minister Jean-Francois Cope has launched an online Cyberbudget game that allows people to balance the books. The challenge is to ensure the €300 billion budget is spent wisely and that if tax cuts are made then services do not fall into deficit. There are a range of tests to face, including having to present the budget to a virtual parliament;

"Madrid" - An online game expressing feelings about the March 11, 2004 train bombings. The game was online less than 48 hours after the incident.

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Backseat games

Posted by bordalix Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:35:00 GMT

Backseat Games is a research project at the Mobility Studio at the Interactive Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The project focuses on creating mobile augmented reality games to be used by children travelling on the back seat of cars. The aim, to terminate with the "Are we there yet?". How? This way:

The game turns churches, bridges and other roadside objects into a fantasy land filled with virtual creatures, treasures and adventure. By pointing the gaming device towards objects as they pass by, players can defend themselves against attacking creatures, pick up magic artifacts or collaborate with players in meeting traffic.

So far the project team has developed two prototypes and is working on a third one.

In Backseat Gaming, a Pocket PC is equipped with a digital compass and a GPS-receiver to connect the game to the surrounding world. The real world acts as the gaming space, and the game content has clear connections to the roadside objects seen outside the windows of the vehicle. The game consists of a framing story and a set of game locations where local stories are told. The player can catch attacking creatures and pick up virtual objects that exist in the vicinity of specific roadside-objects. Watch a video clip< from a user test.

The second prototype, Road Rager, is a multiplayer game, which uses wireless ad-hoc peer-to-peer networking technology to enable game-play between car passengers as they come within each others vicinity. Contingent traffic encounters such as rapid meetings, protracted overtaking or gatherings, i.e. traffic jams or red light accumulations constitute an essential part of the experience of travelling along a road. Road Rager focuses on using these contingent traffic encounters to create a fun and compelling mobile game. The game is developed on a WLAN equipped PDA and uses a Bluetooth GPS-receiver to locate the player’s geographical position. Watch a video clip from a user test.

The third and current running project, Backseat Playground, uses a GPS-receiver, a handheld computer, and headphones, all connected to a laptop in the trunk of the car to create an in-car gaming experience developed around an interactive game which corresponds to the vehicle’s real-world route. The game begins with a radio newsflash relayed by the handheld computer. This radio newsflash places the passenger at the start of a murder mystery or a werewolf thriller. As the car travels along its route, the player receives further phone calls and walkie-talkie messages from characters in the game. The overall purpose of the game is to create a gaming experience where narrative episodes and embedded gameplay combine with the experience of travelling through the road network. To learn more check out the video.