Funcom seriously knows how to create a realistic and horrifying backstory for The Secret World. First it launched a site for Kingsmouth, a sleepy seaside New England town with some dark secrets. The team then released a grainy trailer that shows zombies wandering the town. Well, it turns out that was only the beginning.
Funcom has been running an alternate reality game on Twitter that currently features four Kingsmouth residents talking with each other. Official forum user Leck has posted a transcript of the recent tweets between Carter, Danny Dufresne, Deputy Andy Gardener and Sheriff Helen Bannerman, and some interesting details have surfaced through the discussion.
The characters have been mentioning a blog written by "crazy" Tyler Freeborn, who is a native of Solomon Island. His Monsters of Maine blog was just discovered, and it's "an investigation into the cryptozoological and occult events occuring on Solomon Island." He says the Pale Men will return soon and "drag us down, down, down into the black ocean where we will endure in cold pain and endless darkness for all eternity."
Freeborn revealed today that he will be posting his evidence soon. We'll be keeping an eye on the blog to find out exactly what that means.
Benetton launched an augmented reality issue of their Colors magazine in Autumn 2009. The theme is global teenagers - very counter culture/queer - often showcasing kids whose choices re. music & lifestyle make them targets in their own societies. The issue is packed with AR content - the teens I've shown it to love it. Benetton seems to have more AR on the way:
Here is the first test of my "Magic Projection" system out on the streets in Tokyo. "Magic Projection" is my new augmented reality projection tracking system created for use in my magic stage performances. Have a look and let me know what you think.
Special Thanks to: Zachary Lieberman for software development and for creating OpenFrameworks. Thank you to Danjel van Tijn for his arduino and Wii engineering and Nolan from PeauProductions for the M12 IR filter modifications on the PS3 camera. Also Parte Koishi, Shingo, Teddy, Lisa, Shige, Miki, Masayo, Chika and all at Empire Entertainment Japan for helping me on location in Tokyo. Makiko-sensei for programing me in Japanese. Johnny Chung Lee for his inspirational work with projector based tracking and to all people creating amazing free tools available to artists everywhere: OpenFrameworks, OpenCV, Arduino, MacCam. Made with openframeworks (openframeworks.cc)
Last June Ridley & Tony Scott as 'Free Scott' announced they would be developing a transmedia narrative called Purefold with Ag8 and the original buzz seemed to be that this would be a story extension of Blade Runner. And after that initial info, not much has been heard. This Dec. 2009 MIT Future of Entertainment panel finally provides a bit more info with four of the creators behind the project: David Bausola & Tom Himpe – Co-founders of Ag8; Mauricio Mota – Chief Storytelling Officer, co-founder The Alchemists; & Leo Sa – Petrobras, the brand partner working in development.
The presentation runs you through the following:
- introduction to the history of Purefold - use of narrative filters to harvest the web - near future setting (but not an extension of Bladerunner specifically) - will use networked storytelling - will use an open license
Right off the top, David poses the key question: ‘how can you take this interactive transmedia storytelling production thingy & give it real deep human resonance?’
and he turns to the engine of social media - empathy - as a core experience motivating networked communication.
Outlining the project, some of the key points are:
- creative commons will be key in terms of generating an audience’s stake in the project allowing for repacking & remixing - following this, Purefold will play with an ‘open media franchise’ meaning that the near future setting of 2-3 years will allow the episodes to play with possible futures, drawn in some part from imaginings of the audience. - Their plans here seem to be long term with episodes rolling out over a number of years after launch - Brands will function as THE financial partners and brand placement will be of future prototypes not existing products, allowing for audience feedback on the products placed within these near future stories - brilliant - they site the idea: “innovation is listening to the unexpected” - listening will then be the aggregation of data from audience feedback & chat then looping that info back into story development - The series will run with an overarching narrative to Purefold & each of the brands has its own character representing the brand
Each episode will have 2 parts - a proposition = what the advertiser wants to explore - a synopsis = the character’s story is used to explore that proposition
One example might be the mining of data around electric cars of interest to a brand partner, where the tags from that data might then become part of the inspiration for the writers.
David offers the fascinating idea that their social media aggregator, ‘Friendfeed, helps us dream, looking about the memories of what a episode should be. The best rises to the top, which lets the writers focus on the things. The writers can chose what they want.'
This is going to be one wild and wooly ride for the creators and fascinating for those who want to participate and/or watch!
A new augmented reality game can run on two Android phones, over 3G or Wi-Fi, without an additional server. The unique networking method used for the game could be quite useful for those working on disaster relief or in the military, where significant infrastructure isn't always available.
he game uses a computing middleware system, called Ibis, originally developed for high-performance, distributed computing tasks, such as image processing or astrophysics research, but which Kemp and colleagues have adapted to run on Android phones. "It allows each phone to run a lightweight communication server," says Kemp. The devices can communicate directly with the game, which is hosted on both handsets, using a 3G connection or Wi-Fi.
A recent interview with JJ Abrams covering most of the familiar territory except for this one detail I was not familiar with which updates Woody Allan's Zelig - love it (oh & the site looks interesting too):
Finally, Abrams is also testing his creativity on different media with the TV series Fringe. One of the characters, scary and mysterious, appears furtively in each episode, each time an event linked to the Fringe division takes place. He is called “the observer”, always wears the same black suit, and has the distinctive sign of being bald. In a “Where’s Charlie” manner, Abrams has inserted his character in different TV programs. We can therefore see him during important events like the Superbowl, in the front rows of the game, in the stands of a racing team during an Formula 1 race or in the audience of the famous American series American Idol.