GPS Games

mjr – 1.8.08

GPS games lecture structure

• Definitions

• Examples

• The Mediascape platform

• Geocaching

• Parameters of GPS games

Definition

• A location-based game (or location-enabled game) evolves and progresses via a player's location.

• Usually support some kind of localization technology, e.g. satellite positioning like GPS.

• "Urban gaming" or "Street Games" are multi-player location-based games played out on city streets and built up urban environments.

GPS Games

• Time: Games can:– Start and end at a fixed moment in time

(usually for competing players)– Start at any time but last for a fixed time– Can be played any time.

• Some are location-dependent while others can be played anywhere.

• Often a narrative links the game to the finding of local points of interest.

Examples - Parkour

Examples - Parkour

• The art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself.

• Can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling if that is the most suitable movement for the situation.

• Like a race through an obstacle course, the goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently, without using unnecessary movement.

• Can be done in an urban environment, or a run through the woods.

• If the intention is to get somewhere using the most effective movements with the least loss of momentum, then it could probably be considered Parkour.

Examples - Parkour

• Founded by David Belle in France• Focuses on practicing efficient movements to

develop one's body and mind to be able to overcome obstacles in an emergency.

• No set of rules, team work, formal hierarchy, or competitiveness.

• On the contrary it is more like an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the ancient martial arts.

• An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency

Examples - Parkour

Examples - Parkour

• Video: parcour.avi (2’41”)

City-Hunters

• A duel between two players.

• Specially equipped mobiles

• Takes place in real-world city

• Gamers try to “kill” each other by shooting virtual projectiles

• On mobile, can see destroyed buildings and near misses.

City-Hunters

City-Hunters

• Players' actual positions and surroundings are used as the battlefield and the mobile phone as the weapon.

• Pervasive gaming in urban context• Uses a combination of geopositioning and

tilt sensing• Calculates a 3D trajectory of the virtual

projectile in the real city to determine its effect on the opponent and the city

City-Hunters

• Context-sensitive feedback allows players to interact with both the physical and virtual objects within that space.

• Creates a “parallel universe” for the players; the real, peaceful city and a virtual city that is constantly at war.

• Need for the players to constantly look up to check their surroundings leads them to become more aware of the existing urban fabric.

• Lead to rediscovery of overlooked parts of the city to appreciate it further.

City-Hunters

• Players will need to physically move considerable distances to control the positions of their characters,

• Will need to accurately orientate and aim their mobile phones as if they were real cannons.

City-Hunters - server

• The information of players and their actions is received by the server and processed then distributed back to the clients.

• This ensures that the positions, scores and hit points of the clients are synchronised

• Allows aerial maps and 3D height maps to be stored and processed on the server where storage is not a major concern.

City-Hunters - client

• Works as a terminal for the server• Provides graphical and audio feedback to the

user• Responsible for collecting position and motion

data and transferring it to the server. • Client and server are connected via Wi-Fi or

GPRS • When a firing event occurs, the client sends the

firing parameters to the server, which then responds with the result of the 3D trajectory calculation.

City-Hunters (view of screen)

City-Hunters

• Video: cityHunters.avi (5’44”)

Fruit Farmer

• Fruit Farmer is a maze game by a British firm called Locomatrix, based in Hove

• Object is to collect fruit in virtual space without being captured by the killer wasps!

• Play with a group of friends, either in teams or individually.

• All you need is a field or park and some good weather.

Fruit Farmer

• Need a safe area of open ground, such as a park or common.

• Gaming arena will need to be fairly clear of trees and buildings in order for the GPS to work best.

Fruit Farmer

Fruit Farmer

• Video: locomatrix-fruit.avi (3’34”)

Other mobile GPS apps

Geotagging application:

• Upload photos to picassa

• Include geotagging info, saying where photo was taken

• Photos are accessible in Google Maps, giving tourists an idea of what to expect and what to look for

Other mobile GPS apps

• Video: geotagapp.wmv (1’10”)

Mediascapes

• (show video mediascapegame.wmv (3’13”)

Mediascapes

• mscape is a mobile media gaming platform by HP

• Can be used to create location-based games.• A mediascape is an interactive experience with

text, images, audio and video in which your iPAQ communicates with you about locations (via GPS).

• Mediascapes can be games, experiences, information guides or tools.

Mediascapes

• mscapes, or MediaScapes are based on augmented reality research

• Deals with the combination of real world and computer generated data.

• Gamers are intended to play games on mobile platforms based on real-world inputs, such as GPS and video cameras.

• People can use the platform to create and share applications

Mediascapes

• Mediascapes can be anchored to a specific location or work in a generic space, like a large playing field.

• Changes in location, time or proximity to particular places trigger media files – a new task, an audio clue, a visual re-enactment

• Makes experiences that are unpredictable, memorable and entertaining.

• Mscapers interact socially with one another as they play.

Genres within Mediascape:

Games - may involve finding things, getting somewhere in a defined time period, walking so as to trace out a specific shape etc

Guides - provide specific facts about how the place is now or was in the past. They focus on information.

Genres within Mediascape:

Stories - create an experience.

• Fact or fiction, they're about imagination.

• Stories focus on the feelings and thoughts that places evoke.

Mediascape video

• Video: mscape-tower.wmv (6’11”)

Types of Mediascape

• Fiction

• History

• Nature

• Soundscape

• Museum

Mediascape - Fiction

• eg: “In 10 Seconds”• In 10 Seconds is a 3-part work of fiction consisting of a

film, a website, and a mediascape. Visit the website to start the experience (http://www.in10seconds.com)

• "It might be a good idea to mention that the "location" is in fact St. Andrews park in Bristol, UK"

• "This is a scary, funny and clever experience. There are some great moments and you certainly get to see every inch of the park! Be warned though there is some very strong language. I wouldn't advise it for young children."

Mediascape - History

• Example: Prisoner Escape from the Tower:

• Help four prisoners escape from the Tower of London. Re-enact their historically accurate escapes from the tower and try to avoid capture from the Yeomen Warders.

Mediascape - Nature• Avon New Cut mediascape• Description

• A mediascape walk along Bristol's Avon New Cut, exploring the local history, geology & flora of this man-made 'river' & wildlife corridor into the city.

• The Mediascape combines 35 audio clips and 15 photographs into an exploratory walk along the North side of the Avon New Cut.

• Walkers can enter the area at any point, from any direction, for any duration.

• This mediascape covers the North bank of Bristol's Avon New Cut - between Bedminster Bridge and Ashton Bridge. You can enter from any point, walk in any direction, for any duration. (The enitire walk takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.) The mediascape combines audio and some images; full instructions are given when you start the walk.

Mediascape - Soundscape

• eg: Cyclo-Phone:

• Transforms a circular segment of the city into a sonic cyclone. This giant instrument will audibly alter in pitch and temperament in reaction to an arced path.

Mediascape - Museum• Mapping Museums - St Fagans Past and Future

• The premise of this project is to create a pilot version of an electronic guide for St Fagan’s National History Museum, providing a walking tour incorporating audio, photos, text, and video to provide historical facts and information of the site and its buildings to be viewed on a hand held device. When you are approaching the Pen-Rhiw Chapel for example, you’ll be receiving info about the Chapels history, when it was built, who lived there etc...

• Once you enter the outdoor museum by going out the back of the main entrance begin the mediascape by tapping through the welcome screens until you reach the map. Walk around the buildings situated near the main entrance and play the videos and click through the photos when they appear on your screen. Only about a third of the site is covered in this mediascape so far.

Mediascapes - Scripting

• An event script is a piece of programming that is associated with an event. When an event happens the script is triggered and reacts to that particular event.

• Events are such things as ‘the user has entered a region’, ‘the user has pressed button A on the device while in region 23’, etc.

• It is an Event Driven Language

Mediascapes - Scripting

• In Flash, much can be achieved through the act of dragging and dropping assets onto the stage and coupling various behaviours to them. However once you move into the world of ActionScript many other things become possible, it becomes easier to do things that took time with the drag-and-drop interaction and it becomes possible to do things that you couldn’t do before.

• The situation is similar with the mscape maker, you can do quite a bit with the drag-and-drop interface but you can do more with the scripting abilities.

Mediascapes - Scripting

• You can make your mediascape do things like this:• Link two sounds to a region, play one sound the first time

someone enters a region and then only play the second sound whenever they re-enter that region.

• Have a game where there is a region containing sound and images of a lion, and the user can wander around and then select a point in the space they are in by clicking a button on the screen to say ‘put the lion region at the point where I am standing’.

• Play a sound that asks the user a questions and they can answer by clicking on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ buttons on the screen. The mediascape can then adjust itself depending on their answer.

Mediascapes - Scriptingif (this particular event has happened){ Do this thing; Do this thing as well;}

• The list of things to do is enclosed with curly brackets.• Each thing to be done instruction is ended with a semi-colon.• There is NO semi colon after the 'if (this particular event has

happened)'. You can think of the semi-colon as behaving like a full-stop in writing.

• The condition of the 'if' part is enclosed in brackets.

Mediascapes - Scripting

• Pseudocode:

if (it's the fourth time that the user has entered the region be the castle gate){ Play the trumpet fanfare; }

• Pseudocode doesn’t run on a machine – it is a language used for designing software

Mediascapes - Scripting

• To make it work we actually would write:

if (castle_gate.EnteredCount == 4){ fanfare.Volume = 100; fanfare.Play();}

• Where 'castle_gate' is the region we have defined in the right place on the map and 'fanfare' is the audio file of trumpets that we have imported into the mediascape.

Mediascapes - Scripting

• If you have downloaded a mediascape from the mscape website you can run it on your mobile device

• alternatively you can open it up in the mscape maker and examine how the designer has put it together.

• One of the things you can look at is the event script window. This shows the event (written in the tab) and the script that is followed when the event happens. You can click on different objects in the mediascape to look at the script associated with them.

Mediascape video

• Video: mscapehk.wmv (2’30”)

Mscape Class Activity

• Group into threes

• Write me a Mediascape game, guide or story for Edinburgh city centre

• I want a game description good enough for a pitch to a financial backer (with diagrams)

Mscape

• Three videos:

• The live london game

• The lass in Hong Kong

• The tower of London

Geocache

Geocaching - Letterboxing

• Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby started in 1854 • Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-

accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box – in printed catalogs, – on one of several web sites, or – by word of mouth.

• Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook and a rubber stamp.

• Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook

Geocaching

• A geocacher will place a waterproof container, containing a log book (with pen or pencil) and trinkets or some sort of treasures, then put the cache's coordinates on a website.

• Other geocachers obtain the coordinates from the Internet and seek out the cache using their GPS handheld receivers.

• The finding geocachers record their exploits in the logbook and online.

• Geocachers are free to take objects from the cache in exchange for leaving something of similar or higher value, so there is treasure for the next person to find.

Geocache

Geocaching

• Often need to be able to decipher clues left by those who hide the cache.

• You usually must travel to the hidden stash as well. This can require time and physical fitness

• Many geocaches are hidden in hard to reach, out of the way spots. On a mountain, in a field, even underwater

• Some geocaching is done as a team event, while others are more geared toward individuals.

Geocaching – You will need:

• A Global Positioning System Receiver, also known as a GPSr or simply a GPS unit

• A computer with Internet access• Cache items for trading• A working pen or pencil for signing the log book

or solving puzzles, in case there isn't one in the cache

• Flashlight• Proper wear for outdoor conditions

Geocache

Geocaching – How to:

1. Acquire a GPS receiver either by purchasing, renting or borrowing one.

2. Create an account with one of the caching sites. Membership is free. There are caches on several different sites, so explore them and decide which you prefer.

3. Use the search feature on the website to find a list of caches near you.

Geocaching – How to:

4. Choose a cache which interests you. Record any details or hints

5. Create a waypoint in your GPS unit, using the latitude and longitude coordinates from the cache's web page.

6. Bring a small item for trading at the cache. It should be something you are willing to give away, but might be of some interest or value to another person.

Geocaching – How to:

7. Use your GPS unit's "navigate" feature (or equivalent) to produce an arrow on the screen pointing you to the waypoint you have just created.

8. Using the arrow as a guide, make your way towards the cache.

9. Once you find the cache, take note of how it has been hidden. You will need to replace it in an identical fashion.

Geocaching – How to:

10. Open the cache and browse the contents.

11. Consider if you would like to take anything in exchange for the cache item you have brought along with you. You should always trade something of equal or greater value to keep the sport fair and honest.

Geocaching – How to:

12. Make a new entry in the logbook noting the date, time, your caching site username, and a line or two about your journey. Also log what you traded by including what you took and what you left, even if it was nothing.

13. Close the cache back up securely and hide it in the exact same place and manner in which you found it.

Geocaching – How to:

14. Return home and log back into your chosen caching website. Find your chosen cache once again and use the "Log Your Visit" feature (or equivalent) to record that you found the cache. Include the same kinds of details that you wrote in the cache logbook.

Geocache video

• Video GeocachingExample.wmv (7’12”)

Geocaching

• Has anyone here done any geocaching?

• Has anyone here done a similar or equivalent exercise?

• What would you leave or expect to find in a geocache?

Geocache

Geocaching

• Video:

• LetsgocachingWebtv.wmv (10’00”)

Parameters of GPS games

WHO:

• Alone

• Against one opponent

• Free-for-all

• In Teams

Parameters of GPS games

WHEN:• Specified start and end time• Any start time, fixed length• Whenever

WHERE:• At a specific location• anywhere

Parameters of GPS games

GENRE:

• Games

• Guides

• Stories

• GPS Apps

Parameters of GPS games

CATEGORY:

• Fiction

• History

• Soundscape

• Nature

• Museum

• Sports

GPS games lecture

• Definitions

• Examples

• The Mediascape platform

• Geocaching

• Parameters of GPS games