Welcome to igfest - the interesting games festival.
September 13, 2008
Posted by victoria in: Events | Gaming | pervasive | Add a comment
The Pervasive Media Studio is buzzing this week with preparations for igfest - the interesting games festival, 19th-21st September.
Taking place around the Harbourside in Bristol, igfest is the first festival in the south west to invite people to discover and re-discover the city through playing games in the streets. Freed from screens and boards, players of these games roam the streets hungry for fun. One game may see you fleeing over Pero's bridge with a Pac Man ghost on your tail, another has you playing snakes and ladders up and down the stairs and slopes of a multi story car park.
The final testing phase completed last week, saw a number of willing volunteers testing the tech for Moose Hunt. Useful questions were raised and discussed around using cross platform GPS apps - questions that will enrich future development of pervasive gaming. The test also revealed a couple of software niggles to be ironed out this weekend.
Beginning next week - you are invited to play Moose Hunt.
Moose will be making his autumn migration from the deepest Forest of Dean to Bristol over the week before the festival. Your mission is to find him and photograph him. Text 'moose' to 60300 to receive a map of the moose's current location. But be careful, the moose will be told your location and if he 'shoots' you before you 'shoot' him you are out of the game. Prizes for photographs in various categories including first sighting.
To find out more about igfest go to http://igfest.org/ or join the facebook group by logging in and typing igfest into facebook's search box.
Comfort of Strangers in NYC
June 22, 2008
Posted by Clare in: Events | Gaming | Funding | Add a commentSimon Evans and Simon Johnson took Comfort of Strangers, a street game using wifi and handheld devices developed as part of Media Sandbox, to Come out and Play Festival in New York City this month. Read their blog of the visit here, or watch the film.
Smoke Signals
September 24, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Innovation | Gaming | Mobile | 1 comment so far
Avant garde architects Minimaforms' SMS text message public sculpture ‘Smoke Signals’ at the Offload Festival which took place in Bristol on 13 - 16 September 2007. As a lead up to iShed's Pervasive Media commissioning fund (which will launch in November 2007), Watershed supported a range of located media activities as part of the Offload programme. more…
Edinburgh Interactive Festival
August 15, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Gaming | Add a commentiShed has just returned from the fifth Edinburgh Interactive Festival which featured key games industry speakers such as Sony, Linden Lab and BBC Vision. The emphasis (as in so many media conferences) was on social networking and user generated content - prompting me to wonder when we will stop worrying about the 'changing media landscape' and start looking over the horizon to what is coming next.
That said, the conference was a hugely informative jaunt into the world of console games and virtual worlds. By the end of 2011, according to Gartner Inc, 80 percent of active Internet users will have an avatar. Combining this with higher powered consoles, better AI and audiences who demand customised experiences, gaming companies need to look for more creative, innovative and accessible products.
The internet offers significant opportunities for games companies. New worlds are not without their problems though - keeping a brand space animated and interesting in a virtual world takes dedication, evaluating its success is not straightforward and virtual politics are already complicating the lives of producers: from questions about freedom of speech to player coups.
The highlight for me was the Second Life panel - listening to La Interactiva and watching Robbie Dingo's beautiful machinima on the reproduction of Van Gogh's Starry Night in Second Life, left me with no doubts of the creative possibilities.
Finally watch out for Signs of Life, an ambitious interactive online show from BBC that aims to tap the youth audience that is increasingly turning away from TV.
All in the game: CTN workshop
August 1, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Gaming | Add a commentOn 6 September, Creative Technology Network is holding a cross-sector seminar/workshop in Bristol to generate new ideas for products, services and collaborations:
Beyond the Console: Virtual worlds, interactive experiences and gaming
Speakers include Toby Barnes of Pixel lab, Phil Stenton of HPLabs on mscapers.com, Darius Pocha of Enable on building a branded campaign in Second Life and Hazel Grian of Licorice Film on producing an Alternative Reality Game. The session concludes with an open space workshop to get people talking and sharing ideas.
Participants will be drawn from gaming companies, digital media SMEs, academics and industry and the event is in partnership between the Creative Technology network and South West Screen. Full event details here.
