ARGFest-O-Con '08

Last weekend ARGFest-O-Con '08 took place at the Radisson Hotel in Boston. I heard about it through the IGDA ARG Sig mailing list, and, after checking out their site, figured it was just a bunch of ARG enthusiasts from Boston.

Except there were people there from all over the country, some of the biggest names in both commercial and independent ARGs, and the whole thing was sponsored by 42 Entertainment. This was the seventh annual ARGFest-O-Con, which began when Sean Stacey, the guy who runs unfiction.com decided to go visit Steve Peters in Vegas and posted on unfiction that people should join them for a beer. More people showed up than they bargained on.

Seven years later I blunder in, and was welcomed with open arms. These people are some of the coolest, nicest, most talkative people I've ever met. I didn't preregister, I don't have an account at unfiction, and I basically had no clue. Within 30 minutes of arriving I was talking to people I had never seen before about all sorts of things, including which games I've played and which I haven't. By the end of the cocktail party on Friday night, I had made a number of contacts, and, I think, a number of friends.

Also during the cocktail party an unkempt, drunk man stumbled in, warned us all about the invisible people, tried to punch an invisible person but only managed to spill his drink, then stumbled out again. The hotel staff looked nervous. The crowd applauded. One woman yelled, "He dropped some papers!" Everyone crowded around a picture of the New England School of Law which, coincidentally, is right across the street from the Radisson. A smaller group rushed off to investigate, but I returned to my newly bought beer.

Perhaps forty-five minutes later the same man, now showered and sheveled (is that a word?) sat down next to me and struck up a conversation. I bought him a drink, observed that I had recently seen him as a drunk paranoid schizophrenic, and he told me that some ARG puppetmasters had asked him to play the part. I found out that it was part of a larger, ongoing ARG (phew! at least I wouldn't have to go running off after every clue here at the con), and that the information gathered as part of his clues wouldn't pay off for another two or three weeks online.

When the investigators returned they had the same information I did, but they ran around some hot Boston streets to get it, whereas I had just bought a guy a drink. I guess there's more than one way to play an ARG.

Saturday was a full day of talks and panels, some great, some okay. In the middle of Steve Peters' talk (where he pointed out that all ARG heroines are studious looking, attractive brunettes), this guy walked in:


And only at an ARG conference would the audience begin taking pictures of his tatoos, looking for a possible clue. After all, we were going to have to solve a series of puzzles in order to find out where dinner was that night. I don't know if anything printed on him ever paid off, but I found dinner without referencing him. I think Steve was just trying to go against stereotype and used a visual aid to prove his point, but that's the problem of ARG's. What's a clue? What's a troll? Which are the red herrings and which will pay off?

There is also a real dichotomy between the commercial ARGs which are all for marketing something else (like Why So Serious, Vanishing Point, and Year Zero) and the independent ARGs (like Perplex City, World Without Oil, or Deus City). As evidenced by this blog, most people have only seen the big marketing pushes and don't even know about the independents making ARGs for ARGs sake.

And that's because no one has found a way to make people pay for the ARG experience besides using it as a marketing tool. Majestic failed. I suppose Perplex City at least broke even, but I hear Adrian Hon isn't going anywhere near Season 2 because Season 1 seriously exhausted him. Of course, Adrian is over at We Tell Stories, which seems a much less taxing take on mixed media (and it's sponsored by Penguin Books so it probably pays better).

Saturday evening kicked off with FestQuest, a chance to run around the streets of Boston (93 degrees at 6pm) solving puzzles. Our first puzzle:

which the group solved in the lobby while I was in the bathroom. We had to find the sculpture of the Tortoise and the Hare, which is apparently in Copley Sq. (my wife told me afterwards). Now I've been around Boston, I can find an address, but ask me to find a particular sculpture? Nope.

In the end it didn't matter. We spent an hour and a half wandering around the common looking for the statue, then decided to try to solve the other puzzles. We skipped to location #5, which was 45 School St. (Old City Hall), and from the clues there, put it together that we were supposed to meet the group at Fanueil Hall.

We were the last to arrive. (sigh)

I ended up having dinner with a PR rep for the LA school district and two German viral marketers in the North End. I went crazy at the silent auction, and ended up getting the 42 Productions package, which included two NiN CD's, the I Love Bees ending DVD, a Vanishing Point t-shirt, and a bunch of stickers and buttons. I went in for the I Love Bees DVD, but really enjoyed the Year Zero NiN CD (I had already downloaded the Ghosts CD).

Great stuff, all in all. Next year, if the timing works out, I'll fly out to Portland, Oregon for ARGFest-O-Con '09.

Frontiers '08

Today was the last day of Frontiers, a summer program where high school juniors and seniors come for two weeks to see (kind of) what college is like. I've been doing this for 14 years now in some capacity. The last three years I've been teaching the Art component of the IMGD "major."


That means we have a week and a half of two hours per day classes. I speak for the first hour and then turn them loose on the computers for the second. They design and build Unreal Tournament 2004 levels. I have a TA (hi Eric!) who actually remembers much more about UT2004 editing than I do.

The gang did much better this year than last year. Basically everyone had a playable level. They could all probably use a bit more polish, all the level properties set correctly, a screenshot from the level displayed in the menu, more stuff on the walls, and some set dressing, BUT they were all fun to play. At the end of the day, that's all you can ask.

And really most of them did it in about three days. You see, first they have to work through a video tutorial making their first level. That's most of the first week. The UnrealEd software is really user friendly and easy to pick up. So what did I do differently this year? I stressed a process for level design. It's pretty simple.

Dean's Guide for UT2004 Level Design (applicable to other games too):

1. Have a theme. What is this place? What is it used for when guys with big guns aren't running around gunning each other down there?
2. Draw it out on paper first. It's much easier to erase and redraw a line than it is to replace a hallway or resize a room.
3. Lay out all your gross architecture first with a default texture. It doesn't have to look good at this point, but it should be almost playable.
4. Position all your gameplay elements. Those are spawn points, weapons, health, armor, adrenaline, liquids, and movers (elevators, conveyor belts, pits).
5. Light it. Quick and dirty. Don't fuss over shadows.
   
6. Playtest, playtest, playtest.
7. Repeat #4.
8. Apply textures to everything.
9. Place static meshes to make the level look like a real place.
10. Relight, adding colors and effects.
    
11. Polish: add music, original sounds, level info, etc.

And that's pretty much it. Most of them ran out of time around step 8 or 9, and probably still need more playtesting.

Now I wanted to post a screenshot from each level with a brief description, and maybe a link to all of them. Eric made a pile of CD's so the kids could all take home the work they did, and included one for me. I got it home to load it up and start taking screenshots and found my CD was blank. I'm hoping that it's an anomaly and that the rest of them actually have something on their CDs.

I'll post them as soon as I get them.

Gadgets

The other night I was talking to my mother, and she asked if we had started packing for the trip. A week before leaving? Are you kidding? She said she would be mostly packed by now.

What would you wear for that week?

But I am getting my gadgets in order.

Here's what I need to travel:



That's a laptop (which is really too big, but I went crazy picking it out), ipod, cellphone (old one standing in for current one, which is taking the picture), DS, and a good, old fashioned book.

I always make sure I have a decent game on the laptop, which I never play during the trip. The laptop sits in the hotel and we're out running around. At night I might have enough energy to transfer pictures, upload them, and check email.

I have to make sure the ipod is updated, that I have all the current podcasts and at least 15 hours of audiobooks, as well as current music. This could take a couple of hours right there. I will have to do some shopping both on iTunes and Audible, and making playlists that are energetic but not too hard rock, or soothing for sleeping on the plane, or stuff that Elizabeth won't mind listening to... well, it's a fair amount of organization.

The DS needs a game that will last the trip, and I do a fair amount of DS gaming while traveling, either on the plane or while waiting for Elizabeth to shop. Last year's vacation had me working through Elite Beat Agents, which is a crappy game to just whip out on a moment's notice. It depends on sound (it's a rhythm game) so I had to have headphones, then Elizabeth would have to grab me to tell me she was done, as I couldn't hear her. So I ditched that for Puzzle Quest and got most of the way through that. This year I get to play Shiren the Wanderer. W00T!

Then there is the book. I don't understand the Kindle or the Sony e-book readers. I bring the book for the period on the plane when they tell me to shut off all electronic devices. That's usually about a half an hour to 45 minutes where any active electronic devices will cause us all to go up in a fiery plane crash. Well, not really, but who wants to prove it? So if you've got an e-book reader you're SOL. Elizabeth goes through so many books that a good portion of her luggage weight is books. I usually bring two and some magazines.

The new phone actually has a "Flight mode" so you can disable all wireless aspects of it, but still use it as a Walkman, camera, and to play games. I know I've had a flight attendant tell me to shut something off, and even though I can say it doesn't emit anything, they don't care and don't have time to argue with you. Shut if off or they're taking it. I don't think the obvious cell phone being fiddle with is even going to get that much courtesy.

Actually, the new phone is another story that I will leave for another day. Maybe tomorrow.

Then I have to make sure that everything is charged and I have packed the chargers. The cellphone isn't any good if the battery is dead.

I have to clean out the laptop bag to get it as light as possible. Obviously I don't need school papers in there, but pens, business cards (you never know), and some paper are always good.

The cables, memory, headphones, and accessories then all go into the laptop bag. It's a lot of stuff.

So yes, Mom, I have started packing.

New plan

Two posts in one day? Yeah, crazy.

So the plan is to use this for the next couple of weeks to blog our trip to Seattle. I have made the crazy move of allowing Elizabeth to post to this too. We'll see if she does. I can now send email directly to this blog as text, and pictures directly from the camera phone.

I am mobile. I am prepared. It's exciting.

We're even going to invite my in-laws to follow along, since we're out visiting their Alex and Beth and perhaps they might be interested. I'd invite my parents, but they don't have a computer or use the series of tubes we call the internet. Instead, I will invite my niece Janet, though I doubt she will visit more than once (see what I did there? I laid down that gauntlet.) Who knows, people might even leave comments and then everything will be way out of control.

When I started this, I said I wasn't going to tell anyone until I was posting regularly and had a body of work. Obviously I started strong, like so many blogs, and then petered out when life intruded.

Relaunch. I'm no longer just talking about games. It's whatever comes to mind.

I wanted to change the name too, but it seems like every reasonable name is taken. They're taken by blogs that have exactly two posts in them from three or four years ago. I wonder what the inactivity period for a blog here is...

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight has been lurking nearby my desk since I was a child. This is actually a bank made by the defunct TransOgram toy company during the sixties. My Aunt Mary used to work there and brought this home for me when I went gaga over the Batman TV show (I was 4).

Actually, this is also a first experiment with mobile blogging. Between a new cell phone and an urge to upload photos during our impending trip to Seattle, I thought I'd give it a trial run.