GPS-Game “König Lustik” (German only)

“König Lustik” ist ein GPS-Spiel “des Jugendamtes/Kommunales Jugendbildungswerkes der Stadt Kassel in Kooperation mit der Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel (mhk) und mit finanzieller Unterstützung des Museumsvereins Kassel e.V.”:

“Jede Station führt die Kinder an einen anderen Ort, der zu den Zeiten von König Jérôme Bonaparte von Bedeutung war. Kleine Geschichten erzählen, wie es damals war. Los ging es vor dem Fridericianum – dort, wo bis zum 29. Juni die große Ausstellung zu König Lustik zu sehen ist. Um die Orte, Hinweise und Schätze des GPS-Spiels zu König Lustik zu finden, geben die Spielhauskids die Koordinaten für die erste Station ein. Hierbei bekommen sie Hilfe von den beiden Erwachsenen. Bei den weiteren Stationen klappt es schon alleine, der Umgang mit der Technik bereitet keine Schwierigkeiten. Begleitet wurde die Gruppe bei ihrer Schatzsuche übrigens von einem Kameramann des Offenen Kanal Kassels – nach anfänglicher Aufregung vor laufender Kamera so normal wie möglich zu sein, war die Kamera schnell vergessen. Viel zu spannend und aufregend war der Umgang mit den GPS-Geräten und die Aussicht mit ihnen ‚Schätze’ in und um die Kasseler Innenstadt zu entdecken.”

Source: nh24

Def.: Geocaching

“Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and “treasure,” usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 480,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the sport. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Geocaching&oldid=178046666

Locative games nominated for IGF Mobile

The “Independent Games Festival Mobile” nominated two locative games in the category “Innovation in Augmented Design“:

“PhoneTag Elite [KnowledgeWhere, Calgary, Alberta, Canada] turns hide and seek into a radical group sport across North America by using the mobile phone as a console for chatting and location-tracking. Available exclusively to Sprint customers across America, taggers can shop in-game at their favourite brand stores for tools to help evade capture and pursue targets.

PhoneTag Elite is designed to build both team and community relationships, encourage physical and mental agility, and introduce a new way of playing interactive games from your mobile phone. But, most of all, PhoneTag Elite is designed to be fun. PhoneTag Elite utilizes a patent pending, proprietary technology that protects individuals’ privacy and ensures the players true location is never revealed.”

“Anna’s Secret [by Jan Ulrich Schmidt, Hamburg, Germany] is a GPS driven, location-based learning adventure game for cultural content in the city of Weimar (Germany). A player walks with a GPS-able Pocket PC through the Ilm-park and passes sightseeings. Video clips show Anna and explain the sights, which have an important role in the game. On his way the player has to solve different quests and mysteries to solve Anna’s Secret. If he does well, he can find a treasure chest.

The story of a ghost that suffers from amnesia is used to immerse the player into the gameplay. Many videos show the ghost Anna or details of the park and its history. The game could be adapted to any other city, if the content and the story are modified.

Anna’s Secret is based on the game ‘geocaching’, but extends this play by video and film clips, multimedia features, components of a adventure game and a real, historical background story.

The project is a diploma thesis at the Bauhaus-University of Weimar at the professorship for media and interface design. It respects aspects of ubiquitous and pervasive gaming.

Via GPSbusinessnews

GPSgames.org

“GPSgames.org is an online community dedicated to all kinds of games involving Global Positioning System receivers. “
Screenshot: Locative Media

Def.: Location-based Game

A location-based game (or location-enabled game) is one in which the game play somehow evolves and progresses via a player’s location. Thus, location-based games almost always support some kind of localization technology, for example by using satellite positioning like GPS. “Urban gaming” or “Street Games” are typically multi-player location-based games played out on city streets and built up urban environments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Location-based_game&oldid=170077218

Der englische Begriff Location-based Game (LBG) bezeichnet ein (Computer-)Spiel, in dem der Spielverlauf in irgend einer Form durch die Veränderung der geografischen Position des Spielers beeinflusst wird. Eine deutsche Übersetzung findet sich in “positionsbezogenes Spiel”.
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Location-based_Game&oldid=38617553