Here’s something I’ve been working on for some school admissions. Tomorrow is the day.

Would you like to know about Five Minutes to Midnight? (PDF format)

And yes, that is a new tartan -which you can download for tiling pleasure.

Updating from Rotterdam, here’s the first proper piece of work in a while. Hoping I get into more portraiture!

Introduction

Games are becoming more sophisticated in the technologies that allow us to play in new ways - from button pushing, accelerometers, touch screens to the internet. New technology inevitably leads us to new ways to play. I want to use a technology in games that not only inspires people to move, but also to explore and meet new people - physically. 

The technology that will allow this is GPS, something that is being integrated into consumer products more and more, especially into phones. This is especially interesting as many phones now have the capability to connect to the internet. This opens up a very interesting channel in that services can know where you are, and more interesting - where you are in relation to other people.

Some games take an hour, but this one could take years. Some games use pen and paper, this one uses time and space. Some games need dice or cards, this one needs a constellation of 24 satellites in medium earth orbit.

General Mechanics of the Game

This game is a territory game. The players divided into factions (ie. red, blue, yellow, etc), and the aim of the game is to claim as much territory as possible.

The playing field is public spaces within the real world. Parks, cafés, museums, shopping malls. Each distinct location will be a space that can be made part of the faction’s territory.

To claim the space, a member of a faction must enter a location and remain there for 45 minutes. After that, the territory is claimed.

However, a player can be contested. If a player from an opposing faction enters the same space, the threat is then neutralised - the only way for the first player to claim the space now is to attract members of his faction to that location. This can be similarly countered if the player from the opposing faction also gathers more members of his faction.

At some point, something will have to give - and one team will claim the space.

The spaces factions claim contribute to groups they are contained within - districts, cities, countries, eventually even continents. It is a game that can be played anywhere, whenever the fancy strikes.  

There is no cut-off point when a faction will be decided the winner, and instead the focus will be focused on creating situations as described above, with people gathering in the same spaces. It is my hope that these sorts of standoffs create  very spontaneous and enjoyable gatherings, allowing you to meet and befriend new people from your own faction or even somebody else’s.

Specific Mechanics

To claim a space, as stated earlier, works by staying in a spot for 45 minutes (though you would have to tell the application you are actively claiming it - this is not a passive game!). When you are contested by another player, your current claim is paused. If you were to increase your numbers, the claim would be resumed from where it left off. But if the opposing team gathered more players, the number of minutes on your claim would begin to decrease. This could conceivably lead to standoffs taking quite some time.

Implementation

As it stands, there is only really one device that can carry this game out in a satisfactory manner from the beginning: the Apple iPhone. With GPS, internet, and telephony all built into a platform that can be freely developed for and distributed to, it is a simple choice to make a start from.

The application of this game would only have to do the following:

• Allow you to view the status of territories on a map
• Know your location and relate it to a marked boundary by the game
• Allow you to begin to claim a space
• Notify you of when local spaces are in the process of being claimed
• Allow you to contest claims
• Allow you to invite nearby members of your faction
• Show you the numbers of players in specific spaces
• Show the progress of a claim

This would all be kept together by a server keeping track of what’s going on: who is where, who is claiming, how long for, etc.

This would also be a website in which a player can view the territory map, contact other players, watch claims in progress or maybe even plan claims with his or her own faction.

The interface could also feature other points of interest such as photos of players you are in the same space as, so you can know who you are playing against (and can then leer/grin at).

Conclusion

The setup is complex - but what complexity the system will have will be outshone by the simplicity of the game being played (move around, push button). It has a potential for some very interesting strategy and an even greater potential to get about and meet old and new friends.

I am looking for people who are interested in this idea and wish to help develop it further, in concept and in a very realistic sense as well (especially people with an interest in coding). Please email me at SamGwilym@gmail.com if you have such an interest. Thanks!

Anubis IV responds:

Sounds interesting, but a major problem would be effectively identifying spaces both logically and technically.  What actually defines a territory and sets its boundaries?  If someone is in the mall, ideally, you might think that the territory being contested is the entire mall.  But what about outlet malls?  For instance, if you go to Sawgrass Mills mall in Florida, claiming the entire mall in one go would net you a mall that spans several miles.  In that case, it might make more sense to claim individual buildings, or perhaps even just parts of buildings, but if you’re doing it that way, how do you delimit where the territory begins and ends?

Really, I think that point would need to be codified to such an extent that everyone could identify a territory and know where it begins and ends.

It might also be fun to assign people to regions that are centered around their primary location.  So, for instance, wherever home is, there’s a region of, say, 10 miles in each direction for which they are responsible.  The regions should be sufficiently large in order to provide overlap with enemy players.  At that point, the objective may be to capture x% of your region.  However, since each person has their own personalized region, in theory, everyone could be able to win by merely capturing the areas that overlap with opponent’s regions.  It keeps things competitive, assigns responsibility, defines territory, and makes the challenge less daunting.

When the game is won or lost, the territory’s allegiances could be wiped out for that player, allowing them to start with a fresh board, while other players might not see anything change, allowing them to continue playing the same game that they’ve been playing.

On the setting of boundaries - you’re absolutely right and it’s something I’ve had to think about. At some point, somebody has to be the arbiter of what is considered a space and so on.

I suppose before the game began, or before the game could be begun in a particular place, a kind of ordinance survey would have to be done. Find someone who is trustworthy, interested, and get them to draw out the boundaries on a map - something that could be easy with a bit of time, photographic maps and somebody who really knows the area - though I agree this would be hard to codify. I don’t think a set radius around a point would work very well, as some places are narrow, or someone could try to claim a space by being in the toilets of the place next door (no fun!).

In the end, it’s obvious we’d have to use human tagging for it - and everything would be on a case by case basis. It’ll take a bit of effort and time, but it’ll make the game all the more fun in the end.

I do like your idea of people having a personal region that they should have a heightened responsibility for. But I also want people to feel that if they go to Barcelona for the weekend they can still play if they want to!

I’m not sure about winning or losing yet - I’m kind of tempted with the game being a constant contest. Though a monthly scoreboard would be very nice, and wiping people’s allegiances could also become very interesting. :)

 ^^^ This one is by Nikki Oosterveen ^^^

For the past two months now I have been working. Not school working, not art working, but working. 

I now work at a brasserie which has me working in escorting. For instance, I may escort an orange to the juicer, where juice is then escorted into a beaker, to be escorted into a fridge, or escorted into a glass to be escorted to a customer, who upon finishing this treasured liquid, will want his glass to be escorted to the dishwasher, who will escort it through a machine to be cleaned and then I will then escort it back into the bar to be reintroduced into our ecosystem of cups, saucers, and tiny biscuits.

It is monotonous, repetitive work, but you are surrounded by other people, and that is a blessing because otherwise you would be left feeling as an automaton does on a warm afternoon: the same way he feels when it is raining and cold because he is an automaton and feels nothing, do you see what I am getting at here, etc etc. As you escort juice from place to place you can shoot words by your colleagues, and so get in a sneaky bit of humanity.

Did I mention that an hour of work buys me a glass of juice? This troubles me, because even though it “adds up”, the idea that an hour of labour will buy me something I can get from smashing an orange with a hammer is frankly, a troubling thought.

I work nine hours a day, and on average three days a week. And I thought to myself the other day - if I spent that amount of time working on art, design, or writing! If I could make myself work those hours for four days a week I’d be laughing. The work I have made so far has been made in sporadic dribs and drabs, hours of obsession punctuated by long idling, so what could I do with 36 hours a week?

Of course, it’s easier said than done. One job has you moving between many people, the other has you sitting in isolation. One job is very clear cut, the other is vague with what you should do. And of course, one job has a group of people making me work, the other has me making myself work. Needless to say, my work ethic would have to change in a big way.

I’d miss the brasserie job a lot. A lot a lot. It keeps me involved in some semblance of a normal life. So I’m going to do both.

Watch this space.

With zero permission from me, or any of the other artists from the Little Chimp Society, which seems to have been lifted into an instant book for some easy cash.