42 Entertainment, the company behind massive ARGs such as I Love Bees (a prologue to Halo 2), is behind what Daniel Terdiman of ZDNet News calls ‘a hybrid game–part alternate-reality game, or ARG, part traditional sweepstakes–that’s actually a marketing vehicle for Microsoft’s Windows Vista.’ (You could say that 42 Entertainment are the Hollywood of ARGs.) The game … Read moreARG event in Sydney Tomorrow!
Sandra Hanchard, analyst for Hitwise Asia Pacific, responded to my post about cross-media bundling by offering some stats on what areas of entertainment are most searched for on the Net. The idea being that those with the greatest amount of interest on the Net shows that people are actively looking for other information and other media … Read moreHitwise on Cross-Media Bundling
I’ve attended many industry conferences that claim to be addressing the theme of ‘cross-media’ and ‘transmedia’. I’ve also assessed the schedules of those I haven’t attended from afar. I have not seen one that really understands what it is, and so they do not select the right speakers or ask the right questions. Well, I’m … Read moreBest Transmedia Conference Ever!
Over the hols I read a few books, one of which is a book by Dan Shaffer: Designing for Interaction (thanks Larissa). It provides a good overview of the area but doesn’t go into depth. I appreciated the clear descriptions of the various approaches to the area though. This post, however, is not a review. … Read moreTransmedia & Interaction Design
sagasnet have put a call out for projects to participate: sagasnet organizes each year a Developing Interactive Narrative Content seminar in which lectures and intense workshops cover essential subjects to be considered during the development/pre-production phase for interactive entertainment projects. During this Developing Interactive Narrative Content Seminar pre-selected interactive narrative projects in development (no limitation … Read moreDeveloping Interactive Narrative Content seminar CFP
If you haven’t already seen it, there is an interview with Elan Lee at Gamasutra. Bonnie Ruberg interviews Elan Lee, VP of 42 Entertainment. He talks about The Beast (ARG for the film A.I.), I Love Bees (ARG for Halo 2), EDOC Laundry (ARG t-shirt) and Cathy’s Book (an ARG book…a book that I was so jealous of … Read moreARG creator interview
Hoodlum Entertainment, the company behind the multi-platform dramas Fat Cow Motel and more recently PSTrixi, have created a multi-platform drama that for UK broadcaster the Independent Television Network (called ‘ITV’). Here is info from Tracey Swedlow’s [itvt]: Dubbed the “Emmerdale Channel,” the new project will launch on Christmas Day, in association with a one-hour “Emmerdale” episode, … Read moreRegister now to 'play' multi-platform project Emmerdale
The 4th International Symposium on Pervasive Gaming Applications has put out a call for papers and a call for games: The PerGames series of international symposia addresses the design and technical issues of bringing computer entertainment back to the real world with pervasive games. Previous PerGames events were held in Vienna (2004), Munich (2005), Dublin … Read morePerGames 2007 CFP and CFG
Yep, they are all the topics I’ll be presenting on over the next few weeks in three states across Australia. But what is even more interesting, are the co-presenters. Check out this yummy bunch of seminars: Film Australia’s “Evan Jones Masterclass: Extending Doco in the Time of Digital” Monday 20th November, 1.30-4.30pm, Film Australia’s Roxy … Read moreARGs, RPGs, Interactive Drama, Cross-Media, Serious Games, Film, Doco, Literature, Blogs and Marketing
The Alternate Reality Gaming Network has started a podcast, well, netcast. It looks like they will be delivering ARG commentary every week, which is great news. Although the style of the show is casual, subjective chat, there are some gems for would-be ARG designers, researchers and marketers out there. So far there are two episodes … Read moreARGN Netcast