"Zombies, Run! (Fiction)"

 Okay so the basic idea of this was to come up with an idea for an app that encourages people to so something healthy. The used example here was an app called "Zombies, Run! 2", which encourages users to run by simulating a zombie apocalypse.

you can find the app at: http://www.sixtostart.com/

I wrote a brief essay about the app and how it uses interactivity as its hook. I went on to talk about a pitch for an interactive app that would focus on problem solving, critical thinking as well as getting a good walk in the process. There's also a nice trailer here.

In the viewing of the app “Zombies, Run! 2”, the main observable item seen is that the developers are taking advantage of an augmented reality situation. Augmented reality is a recent development in interactivity that allows the user’s personal world to be integrated into a gaming experience while taking advantage of technology in the devices being used, such as microphones, cameras, and GPS. A good example of this could be found in the Inception Augmented Reality App, released in conjunction with the movie Inception in 2010. The app takes advantage of microphones present on most IPods and smart phones; the user wears headphones, which play the parts of the score of the movie, the microphone picks up residual noises and blends them within the score and personalizes it to what is happening around the listener. For example, people talking in a crowd becomes distorted and mixed in with a soundtrack and when the volume level changes drastically in the environment, the soundtrack also changes its intensity to match it.

            That’s one example that serves to demonstrate the aesthetic power of an augmented reality app, but the focus of this particular game is one that targets a broader group of people, them being people who either like to exercise and want a new way to do it, or people who want to exercise and need an incentive to participate. The app fulfills the need to exercise by creating an elaborate story, in this case simulating zombies to make the person want to run. The type of running the app is encouraging would be very rigorous and the app seems to be a very good concept for promoting cardio fitness.

            The pitch I have would want to make use of the fact that there is a large world that each user uniquely is able to explore. I’d like to use a story to encourage people to think critically and exercise (albeit more casually than “Zombies, Run! 2”) .

            The fiction I like to think would be inspired by the point-and-click game series “Myst”. Point and click games were a popular advent in computer gaming but really fell by the wayside when more technology allowed for more in depth worlds. I believe that a game with a fiction like “Myst” (Wherein a character is introduced to an environment and is encouraged to explore and discover clues that give meaning to a deeper story) can find new life in an interactive application.

Games like Myst create a dynamic world space and couple it with a deep story that needs to be uncovered in order to progress

            The way I’d achieve this would work on two levels. First, the game would have a set of objectives that need to be travelled to in order to complete them, for instance a clue would be set in an area that would be travelled to by the user in real time. This would be made using the locator found on most smart phones; the phone would register the location and put objectives in different parts of the area (paying attention to keeping them either outside, or in public areas). The user would then be able to journey to the area and complete objectives and progress through a story.

            The other part of the story makes use of the camera on phones to solve puzzles. The camera could act as a lens through which the user could combine the real world with the created one. For example, an objective tells a user to go to a public library, once they arrive the game tells them to examine the room through the camera; the camera would proceed to project an object onto a nearby desk (lets say it’s a fingerprint). The user would discover the object and the game would be able to point them in a different direction.
 

           
       With all the elements of interactivity injected, the game is at its heart a story driven puzzle game and the goal should be for users to think critically and solve a mystery all while getting some walking done in the process. This game is one which would probably be played continuously for long periods of time (games such as “Heavy Rain” or “Alan Wake” or even thriller novels are addictive in the same way), but unlike those games, users who play this app would not be sitting alone in an apartment or room staring at a television, but would be much more exposed to the world and able to pick up and play the game at will as they come to different locations on their own. The game can be flexible as well, maybe if the person is limited to a college campus or to a house, they can reset the perimeters of the playable game space as need be.

Sources:

http://inceptiontheapp.com/about

http://cyan.com/games/myst/

Miller, C. (2008). “Interactivity and Its Effects,” Digital Storytelling: A creator’s guide to Interactive Entertainment.