ARIS – Mobile Media Learning Experiences

If you haven’t seen the great work being done with Layer you should check it out. They are using the electronic compass to map additional data to the screen, overlaying a “layer” of reality on top of the physical. Once we get through the next round of editor development, this is something that I really would like to build into ARIS.

Instead of a presentation, we did a play test with the 20-30 folks that attended our session. We got them synced up, broke them into teams, and sent them into one of our short mystery games, Ghost Hunters, a QR Code based quest to track down and banish a ghost who has been up to no good at the Memorial Union.

At TEDU 2009, Erik Hersman presents the remarkable story of Ushahidi, a GoogleMap mashup that allowed Kenyans to report and track violence via cell phone texts following the 2008 elections, and has evolved to continue saving lives in other countries during the crucial first three hours of any crisis. (Recorded at TEDU 2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 3:57.)

The picture-themed ARIS gamejam was another rapid fire few hours of gameplay. The mini-games and ideas included:

• QR Codes for subversive and civic engagement
• Gathering pictures of sustenance to influence dice-battle health (food pyramid served as point value system)
• Scavenger hunt for images located in Union
• Re-enactment activity of other teams’ gathered images

Thanks for all who came and participated!

After discussion this week, the new theme has been selected – music and sound. To get ideas rolling quicker, we spent some time brainstorming in pairs on mini-game ideas. Topics like remixing location-based sound samples, sound-based scavenger hunts, and using melody recognition applications were thrown around. 

All interested are welcome to attend the playtesting of our upcoming gamejam!

• Monday March 23rd, at 3:15 pm in the Memorial Union. 

P.S. After yesterday’s iPhone 3.0 unveiling, upcoming apps like “Smule” indicates music and sound is a substantial area for mobile media learning. See a Phantom of the Opera iPhone duet below:

Playing Matt Gaydos' Game

This week’s playtesting of games based on the Memorial Union (at UW-Madison) was a lot of fun! We’re accomplishing our goal to discover engaging and interesting ways to interact with places and spaces.  

Battle by Fire

Two games involved deciphering the storied walls of Der Rathskeller (pictured above), and another was navigation based, opening our eyes to rarely seen corners of the Union. Also, the fourth game played sent teams of ghost hunters (the players) to capture a troublesome apparition, ending in epic D&D-esque battles. 

We’re looking forward to the next round of game jammin’, and invite all willing and able, to come play. This round’s theme is Pictures – ranging from art to digital images. Also, the group agreed that this time all games should incorporate mobile technology in some way. We have iPhones for use, or use your own. 

Lastly, we’re experimenting with values like citizenship and community-building. We’re excited to find ways to incorporate these practices into our games!

Here we go again! This week game jammers met at the Memorial Union on the UW-Campus for our annual half-time debriefing and planning for the next theme. We had a healthy discussion about “steel” as a theme topic, and how we learned some good things, including:

• Themes can be viewed as seeds – starting points rather than boundaries
• Combat mechanisms and strategic moments (devoid of timed restrictions?) are rich areas to explore
• Also worth exploring is team play with some members at “basecamp” working with other members “in the field” as a coordinated kind of mobile play.

Negotiations also continued between the Mad Designers and ARIS game jammers. The future looks bright for both groups as it seems two jams can share one campus. 

Memorial Union

Moving right along, the next theme has been selected – The Union.  As in, the Memorial Union on UW-Campus. We’re leaving it broad and look forward to playing a variety of mobile games next week!

Playing Uncle Andrew's Inheritance

This week’s playtesting for round 2 was a rapid-fire experience, with 4 games played in a blitz of 15 minute intervals. All games varied in genre and in their use of the Memorial Union:

• Uncle Andrew’s Inheritance (Kevin Harris) stretched comfort zones, as players challenged strangers (with the names needed to win) to paper-rock-scissors competitions.
• Hobo Wedding (author wishes to remain anonymous) challenged ethics and ingenuity, with the goal to “steal” items a bride would need – something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. 
• Steel War (pictured; John Martin & David Gagnon) utilized ARIS as players competed to
  

  Steel War

  collect virtual resources and objects surrounding the Memorial Union. Players strategized to build strength for a culminating classic dice-based battle. 

• Time travel puzzle (Matt Gaydos) riffed on UW-Madison’s alma mater in a time travel guessing game. 

We will be debriefing this round of game jamming on Monday the 16th at the Memorial Union. We will also pick the next theme for round 3!

(photo: Selva Morales)

The theme of this cycle is STEEL. Steel must appear as an image (primary or supportive) within your game. This is a deviation from last week’s theme which was a mechanic. Steel can connect to an interesting place, history, subject material and anything else you can dream up. 

The rules: 

1. Use ARIS as much or as little as preferred. We want to discover the possibilities of mobile gaming to inform ARIS. Try using physical objects, envelopes with instructions, a human facilitator, other iPhone apps, etc. to build an activity. Let’s be thinking of what we want a mobile experience to be, not what we can do with what we’ve made so far. 
2.  Team play is encouraged.
3. Create games at or near the Memorial Union on campus. 

The Place & Date:

On Monday February Feb. 9th we will meet at the Memorial Union to playtest the 2nd set of games. This process is springing up valuable lessons and insights on mobile game design and place-based learning. Thanks for participating!

A total of 7 mini-games were built around the theme “geo-caching” Here are the descriptions.

Madison locations used in geo-cache games

Dinopet (Chris Blakesley) – Find essential food for your Glyptodon or risk losing it. An experiment with obtaining a persistent virtual character and sustaining it with place-based resources.

Unite (Matt Gaydos) - In unite, two teams raced to take the correct photos and return first to the starting place.

Library Fisticuffs (Ryan Martinez) – Fisticuffs launched two teams of players from different points to solve location-sensitive riddles and return to the starting place first to win.

pwned (David Gagnon) – This was an experiment with an “interactive virtual object” masked as a mysterious wifi transmitter. If the player accepts the connection, their device is hacked.

SMS Helix Riddle (David Gagnon) – This activity begins with a riddle found in a SMS message that was intercepted by the players organization. The riddle leads to a particular building on campus and is answered by typing the correct address into ARIS.

Indoctrination (Kevin Harris) – An attack is imminent and the player needs to interpret the color of a beacon to understand the enemy communication.

Saving Philip (Yoonsin Oh) – A famous statue needs to be revived! Find the statue and correctly answer the questions to save him.