[arg_discuss] Tools for ARG developers

[Christy Dena]

Hey! I looove "universe guide". :) 

Good points about the universe guide being an issue for longer games. Most
of the "universe guides" that have been used in a 'transmedia' context have
been retrospective in that they have been created once the fictional world
is already in play. The document works then to capture all that thas been
released to the public and maps out possible future paths. It also acts as a
design doc to maintain consistency across creators. But some are now being
created at the beginning before the world is alive -- to ensure the
consistency issue.

And yay, I use Basecamp too: http://www.basecamphq.com/ 
And Jason, great find with the Gliffy. 

Best,
Christy

-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Brian Clark
Sent: Saturday, 1 December 2007 02:35
To: 'Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG'
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Tools for ARG developers

I think the big issue is whether you're trying to be descriptive or
prescriptive in this planning document. The original question was:

"Any tips on how to do this, what level of abstraction to go into when
documenting a game. What sort of tools do you guys use? (Mac/Pc)"

I interpret that as a prescriptive need, and I tend to use a combo similar
to what Mike described -- Word for textual documents, Excel for timeline
documents, Basecamp for milestone scheduling. If you looked at any of the
documents at the launch date, they would seem like very descriptive
documents. By the end of the experience, they've been updated so many times
and vamped upon so many times they might be unrecognizable to the real
experience except in the most abstract sense.

The longer the experience gets, though, the more the "universe guide"
approach is important. The challenge there, though, becomes separating what
your players know from what you know as a storyteller in a way that doesn't
confuse the two. What the players know is more difficult to change later and
keep narrative consistency; any plans I had that the audience didn't see I
can change as I want. So, for me, that becomes the "descriptive" document
and tends to shape up near the end of an experience.

This means commercial games we do don't spend as much time thinking about
that aspect. Which is fine since it is unlikely to be an ongoing series. At
the beginning, though, I tend to focus more on the prescriptive aspects --
how we'll use the essential pieces of the experience to guide certain kinds
of involvement that deals with the classic challenges (like how does the
audience catch up, how do you make everything aim towards a narrative
climax, etc.)

-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Christy Dena
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:58 PM
To: 'Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG'
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Tools for ARG developers


Glad to see the Confluence vote! And I totally agree, the technology and
approach used is entirely relative to the person and team. 

The world management problem isn't unique to ARGs either. Many companies are
now hiring external World Bible specialists to gather all important
information to ensure consistency. One company that provides this service to
Disney, Coca-Cola and many other big clients is:
http://www.starlightrunner.com/. 

I wonder if World Bible Management is an issue for MMOs? And if not, why?

And I wonder if some players out there could start a World Management
consulting business...? :)


-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Andrea Phillips
Sent: Friday, 30 November 2007 13:18
To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Tools for ARG developers

On Nov 29, 2007 8:40 PM, Christy Dena
<cdena at cross-mediaentertainment.com> wrote:


> As for the wiki problem. There is an Australian company, Atlassian, that

has

> developed a commercial wiki for projects: Confluence. It is used by

Disney,

> Pixar, BBC, Turner Broadcasting and many others. It may solve some

problems:

> http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ . But Brooke, you're talking

> about the updating more than the technology I think. I found it funny how

in

> Perplex City they gave up and used the player bible wiki rather than their

> own. Why not eh?!

>



Another vote for Confluence. I've tried it out for the MMORPG project
I'm (hopefully) embarking on soon, and was really pleased with it...
though of course it's worth noting that the tools that work best will
vary depending on how you and your team work together. What works for
me may be a disaster for you!

Also, it's true that the Perplex City team relied a lot on the player
wiki, but we went through a few iterations of internal wikis, too. I
found them particularly useful for storing drafts of content to go up
in future updates, where proofing and revision changes would be
captured. But keeping track of character birthdays and holidays... the
players could do it way better than us. :)

-- 
Andrea Phillips
andrhia at gmail.com
http://www.deusexmachinatio.com
Words * Marketing * Interaction
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