Tag: transmedia

Stephen Fisher - Designer and Developer Stephen Fisher - Designer and Developer

#Suspicion: Where being social is Deadly!

Stephen Fisher / / #Suspicion, General

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Over 250 million tweets are posted each day, there are around 1 billion Facebook accounts in operation and everyday we are leaking more and more information about ourselves on-line. 

#SUSPICION is aiming to place you in the most socially deadly game of who dunnit yet to be created using modern leaps in technology alongside traditional card based game play elements you will be competing to work out out who commit a series of murders with ‘live’ interactions with victims friends and families. Build up points by correctly asking and interviewing friends and family but watch out as one of you will be placed as the killer and it is there jobs to tamper with the evidence, scare witnesses and otherwise ensure they don’t get found out.

Featuring NFC technology players can actively interact with game elements and using social media keep a breast on what is occurring, each play experience will be unique. Utilizing transmedia techniques the game transcends cards to make use of twitter engagement, Facebook lore, YouTube evidence to enhance the experience whilst also being completely playable if such technology is not ready to hand.  Via the power of Conducttr acting as a middle organiser each case will feel unique with your on-line friends able to keep track on your play experience and if you so desire taking part, the long term goal is to be able to market the game as case packs with customisable options available for the price of a retail board game however development is is in the early stages at present.

How to Play – Brief

The game is designed for 4+ Players each player if playing on-line will enter there twitter ID into the checking system, each player will receive a personal message from the automated on-line system nearly instantly with one of the players being told they are the Murderer.

Each turn has a set amount of actions, these include:

  • Scouting for evidence (Evidence Cards)
  • Interviewing Alibis (Character Profile Cards)

As a team they must chose which action to take with not all evidence or alibi cards corresponding to each case. The detectives score points upon successful completion of each action HOWEVER murderer can tamper and sabotage these actions as it is all handled on-line with scores revealed after each 5 turns thus making it difficult to work out who and when espionage occurred. The team win if they accuse correct murderer or score desired amount of points within the games time-frame, actions can be bought for points which can be helpful but also serve as a risk. Murder wins if wrong person is accused or points don’t reach landmark.

WIP Template

How NFC / QR / On-line adds to game play

IF players opt to play on-line and have access to NFC devices or smart phones they can actively chose actions on-line via tweeting it through and score is managed on-line. On-line adds a level of social interaction whereby they can watch custom made videos, look at victims profile pages and find out more clues to help or hinder the case in question, cause the murderer changes all the time the game mechanically is never the same and its down to good bluffing, the goal is however to be able to remotely change cases / update but also release extra case packs at a low rate frequently to extend the games meta narrative. If players wanted to make it more engaging they could by the fact they actively can tap items which could in theory be hidden around a play space to make finding evidence more engaging.

Obviously the game works offline too with pen and paper replacing some of the on-line interactions and details stored in ‘authentic’ feel case files.  Mechanically at its core the game is simple to pick-up and play with its selling point being its interesting added elements and level of experience it aims to generate.

So where is it at presently?

At the moment it is more at proof of concept stage with narrative links,plot details and social links being finalised with a proposed test session / version desired late February this is to ensure game play works as intended and visual / interactions are appropriate.

The future

Ideally as mentioned earlier I would like to market this game / experience mid this year via an on-line funding campaign and distribute as possible, ideally would love to get this game backed by other writers and release expansion case packs adding new characters, cards and options to game play even potentially option for players to customise packs to have their own details on printed materials and such. but at the moment this is all long term hopes and dreams.

I will update you with more details shortly including character profiles, test versions and how it works at a later date. A lot of the core mechanics and secrets are yet to be revealed cant be saying it all now can I.

Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/SuspicionGame

Trans-dimensional Gaming from gaming student – Project Sense

Stephen Fisher / / Project Sense

As a Games production student the idea of trans-media transgression is one that vividly interests me with the blurring between what we perceive and what we feel becoming less defined. As part of my university degree I am working on a socially aware game that challenges the idea of disabilities in video games by placing the player into the role of someone or something that is facing real world impairments be they physical or neurological. It is designed to evoke a response from the player and as an avid fan of Augmented reality and trans-media strategies any chance to cross boundaries is one I jump upon, games can evoke responses that other forms of media can only just simulate, they actively encourage the player to proceed however rarely do they cross the threshold in the big world stage.

The game I am making simply called Project Sense at the moment is designed to cross these boundaries and give life to an otherwise simulated world, players can physically interact with the world and emulate struggles that people face in daily life. I feel that it is only by pushing sometimes can progress be made and linear development can only go so far, we see examples of games that have made it into books, films and even rarely television spaces however often the message is lost and the feeling tainted by the lack of understanding that it is not simply enough to create a world sometimes you need to feel the world you have spun and engulf the user into this fantasy, games should not end once the machine or device is switched off they should using gamification methods spread into daily life making the virtual feel that little bit more real.

I find it hard sometimes that in my course we are told a game is defined as one way of thinking to provoke a response from interactive engagement but sometimes I feel a game can be more important for the message and long-standing message that is subtly delivered. Trans-media is linked via media methods and approaches but can it really deliver the impact on social level that can change actions and thoughts without even being realized? Does tans-media  therefore transcend media itself…

I hope to write more posts here including one on an audience aware project and the pitfalls and research concluded and one on mobile augmented communicative delivery.