[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 3: Show and Tell

[David Flor]

I'm going to assume the question relates to ARG-specific things; I'm
not going to bring up my game design work, things I did before I even
knew ARGs existed. But, if you're curious of that, you may contact me
privately. :)

I'm currently working on "Rachel's Walk"
(http://www.rachelswalk.com/), which I can't really tell you about
yet, but I'm especially proud of how it's coming along and the
development and design the team has been doing. It's been a little
over a year in the making, and I think it's going to be well worth it
once it's opened to the masses. In my heart I feel it's going to be
rather revolutionary if we can do it right, hence the diligence and
the time we're putting in to it; it's something we certainly don't
want to rush.

And I'm particularly proud of the response I got for my first ARG,
Looking Glass Labs. In the back of my mind I'm fearful I'll never be
able to match that, but lord knows I'm gonna try.

Tnx & Rgds...
David Flor
Darklight Interactive - http://www.dlimedia.com/

"Omne ignotum pro magnifico"

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Naomi Alderman<naomi.alderman at gmail.com> wrote:

> Heh. Well, as we're having Perplex City celebration day... Actually, I was

> going to nominate the setup for the Monica Grand thing. I was very pleased

> with the Salk logs: a set of correspondence between Monica and Pietro, the

> journalist she was hoping would help her turn herself in to the authorities:

> http://perplexcitywiki.com/wiki/Salklogs.doc

>

> This was one of those things which was conceived to fill a hole: we had an

> idea for a cool puzzle (locate a person in a huge apartment complex) and

> needed some way to give clues about when Monica was entering and leaving her

> apartment. I started out thinking it'd be 1,000 words, tops, but it turned

> out closer to 6,000 because the characters had a lot to say! I feel like

> it's a successful story with good character development as well as a piece

> of writing that did a puzzle job - people have told me since that they found

> it moving and memorable - that's really the sweet spot for me.

>

> And then this, from the We Tell Stories project last year:

> http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php?option=com_altcaster&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=e8b78cbab5.

> Which was silly and fun - I love opportunities to do live improvisational

> writing above almost any other element of games work. It was a small

> live-online event, where we really took everything the software would do -

> polls, comments, images... - and found a way to fit them in!

>

> I guess that's what I love - when you can find a way to make the technology,

> the puzzles and the story work together so that none takes precedence and no

> one's left going "they just did this to give us a clue/introduce us to this

> tech". Sometimes there's no way around it, but if you can find that spot,

> it's great.

>

> - Naomi

>

>

> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 8:33 PM, David Varela <davidvarela at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> I'll jump in, also with a highlight from Perplex City. The murder of Monica

>> Grand was my first real piece of ARG work, so it will always have a place

>> in

>> my heart. As a piece of audio drama, it's still pretty powerful - players

>> stumbled across this recording not realising what it was, and the sound

>> effects are really quite graphic. It gave me enormous satisfaction when the

>> players started reporting it had given them nightmares:

>>

>> http://perplexcitywiki.com/wiki/Track_3.mp3

>>

>> And I suppose the audience reaction is what I'm really looking for. At the

>> end of Xi, there were a few forum posts that got me a little choked up.

>> Here's one:

>>

>>

>> http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=bEN_PS3_Xi&thread.id=31074

>> So it's not just about the craft, it's about how it moves people. That's

>> what really makes me proud.

>>

>> David Varela

>>

>> Producer

>> www.nDreams.com

>>

>>

>>

>> On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 7:53 PM, Andrea Phillips <andrhia at gmail.com> wrote:

>>

>> >

>> > With that in mind, this week's topic is Show and Tell: In your body of

>> > work, what are the couple of things you've done that you're the

>> > absolute most proud of? I'm not talking an entire project, mind --

>> > just small, individual pieces of the larger whole. A video clip, a

>> > puzzle design, a spectacular venue find for an event... what have you

>> > got? I know it's a hard question, and could be akin to "which one was

>> > your favorite chocolate chip in the cookie," but see what you can come

>> > up with. ^_^

>> >

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