Day of the Figurines
May 30, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Technology | Gaming | Mobile | Trackback
05:49pm, 4 soldiers walk in, calmly ushering a handful of police through to the cells at gunpoint. There is a GUITAR here.
I visited Blast Theory's Day of The Figurines in Wolverhampton last week, and this is a sample of one of the messages I have received on my phone since. So far Heidi Burton, (my bikini clad in-game avatar/character) has rescued a sick dog, tried to solve a murder (unsuccessfully) eaten a saveloy and met some of the locals. And there is still a couple of weeks of game play to go.
Day Of The Figurines is part board game, part secret society. The game is set in a fictional town that is littered, dark and underpinned with steady decay. It lasts for 24 days and each day represents an hour in the life of a small English town that shifts from the mundane to the cataclysmic.
Each of the 1,000 players is represented by a small plastic figurine which is moved by hand every hour for the duration of the game. To play, players are invited to create a figurine to enter the town: to name it and answer questions about its past. Thereafter participation in the game is via SMS on your mobile phone.
The town created by Blast Theory is beautifully produced and the SMS messages are intriguing if not unrelenting. However, the interactivity afforded via a text-based game is limited, so I will wait and see how players may or may not collaborate when the darker days I hear rumoured arrive.
Comments
Hello! I was searching for stuff on DOtF and found your blog - I just tried talking to you (in-game) about getting a gig together with your guitar and my drums - I think the Locarno is the place, I'm just not sure when. I'm off to rescue a sick dog too now, maybe catch you later, "Boyd" (www.andypryke.com)