[arg_discuss] Announcement of Student ARG

[Bryan Alexander]

Jeff, this is great to read.  Do you mind if I blog it?

-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Jeff McNab
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 1:23 PM
To: arg_discuss at igda.org
Subject: [arg_discuss] Announcement of Student ARG

It seems that more and more ARGs are entering into the "mainstream"  
of gaming. This led our group, composed of seniors at the Savannah  
College of Art and Design, to decide to create a grassroots ARG.  
Here's the press release.

SCAD Students Announce the Launch of Project Loyola ARG
     Savannah, Georgia, March 5, 2008 -- A group of senior students  
from the Savannah College of Art and Design announced the release of   
Project Loyola, a student-developed alternate reality game (ARG) that  
allows its players to unravel the mysteries behind the disappearance  
of its main character, Alex Loyola.
      Like all games in the ARG genre, Project Loyola invites players  
to go on an adventure that takes place in both real and virtual  
space. However, the Project Loyola ARG is also one of the first  
student-developed projects in the field of alternate reality gaming.  
The initial launch of this project, along with a promotional campaign  
spanning multiple sites such as Facebook, craigslist.org and many  
other sites, will take place on March 5th, 2008.
     "We initially decided to develop an ARG because of the  
uniqueness of the project," said Jeff McNab, project lead for the  
Project Loyola. "We quickly found out that there is little  
information regarding ARG development and turned our project into a  
sort of test-bed for future students interested in ARG work. We  
wanted to find out what works, what doesn't and most importantly,  
document every step of the way." The Project Loyola team plans on  
releasing this documentation once the project goes through an initial  
testing phase to document player interaction.

For more information on the Project Loyola ARG, visit redloyola.com.

About Project Loyola:
The Project Loyola Team is composed of five main members: Jeff McNab,  
Ashley Waldbaum, Francisco Rodriguez, Stephen Lawrence and Greg  
Morgan. They, along with a variety of volunteers, faculty members,  
and students on multiple fields of study, are responsible for the  
both the development and maintenance of the first student-developed  
alternate reality game in the Savannah College of Art and Design.

(A copy of this press release can be found at http:// 
jeffmcnab.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/launch-of-project-loyola-arg/)

We knew we couldn't create an ARG to compete with ones like the Dark  
Knight or Cloverfield. Instead we decided to create a simple ARG and  
document everything surrounding it. After we have gone through our  
initial launch and gotten player feedback, we plan on publishing our  
documentation for other students interested in ARG development.

I just thought people might be interested in this and wanted to thank  
everyone for the wealth of information available through the SIG.

Jeff McNab
jeff at tragicgeek.com



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