Database of Games » Game DB News

New: Location Based Games, fact or fiction?

gamepac — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:03:27 +0000

An interesting development recently that has been on the news in several cities is a new type of game playing called “Location Based Games”. These are apparently games played out in the real world, like cities or streets or even across suburbs and even in unpopulated nature areas like hiking trails, which use different types of mobile technology like GPS receivers and cellphones to create games with many people that have to do some physical activity to play the game. And there are new companies and services that also seem to add a king of real world game to things our phones and computers can already do. Foursquare (named after the game foursquare) and Gowalla use mobile phones and awards to create a game out of places you visit: read more on the New York Times.

There are a whole bunch of other location based games being created, the most interesting example that seems to get kids excited about the possibilities is one called Pacmanhattan: a kind of real world game of pacman, turning it into a tag or catch and chase type game (note: this does not look very safe to play in a city.)

There are also a full list of other types of locative games on the wikipedia location based game page you can read about: Wikipedia.

Conflux!

admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:57:21 +0000

Yes, all you physical-game-integrationists, its time to get your phones on and hit the streets… conflux festival 2009 is here! Unfortunately for us, we’re not in New York City, but the types of physical games seem like they could easily spread!

cool stuff abounds… like the Urban Disorientation game, or the Human Scale Chess game, or a Citywide Golf Course.

Three days only, check out the full schedule here!

Call for Siggraph 2009 Social Game

gamepac — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:03:20 +0000

It looks like SIGGRAPH 2009 is calling for some social game competition… networking, of course, being the goal. But why not throw in some chase, or tag, or team battles… Im a big fan of robbers and soldiers tag. You could theme it for the middle management crowd. Just a thought. HEY THEY DO IMPORTANT WORK! its true. Or maybe Run Sheep Run hide and seek, which is totally fun: team based hide and seek. The whole proposal is here [siggraph.org]. Probably the coolest thing about SIGGRAPH 2009 is its being held in New Orleans. Props go out, its usually pretty interesting. Its cool how conferences are adding more and more games to their lineups. It can only end well. Just avoid playing Dodgeball. Adults heal slower than kids.

Looking for more sources

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:34:23 +0000

I have now about seven different sources of physical and social games, but if anyone knows of any more, please let me know. You can also add them here.