Projects //
The Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming
IPerG – Integrated Project of Pervasive Games – was a reserach and development project that ran from 2004-2008 and was concerned with exploring the then emerging field of pervasive gaming. Pervasive Gaming. A pervasive game is one that ‘has one or more salient features that expand the contractual magic circle of play socially, spartially or temporally’. The consortium identifies three sub-genres of pervasive gaming; Treasure Hunts – in which users search for objects in an unlimited game space, Alternate Reality games – which layer additional meaning, depth, and interaction upon the real world,Pervasive larps – Character driven games in a ‘set’ narrative space or stage; Urban Adventure Games- combining stories and puzzles with urban spaces often tied to places of historical or cultural significance, Smart Street Sports -can be GPS driven and team based involving physical exercise and tactical thinking, Massively Multiplayer Mobile Games – involving mobile telephony,and Boxed Pervasive Games: Systems for creating and controlling pervasive and locative games.
The most notable outcome of the project is perhaps ‘The Game Creator’ development and control platform for pervasive gaming which then became ‘the Creator’. That package was used by SVT and mixed media production company The Company P to produce the Truth About Marika – a participative narrative based on a multiplatform multilayered game space including a television drama, web based media, physical and virtual worlds. The game provided for large scale collaboration and interaction by the public. The Project also developed pervasive game models for mobile phones in conjunction with Nokia and a wide range of other models for pervasive, ambient, locative, ubiquitous gaming and interaction.
