If you were at this year’s GDC and noticed an occasional yelp emanating from a group of people mashing buttons on their cell-phones, clustered around a large video display, you may have wondered what all the hubbub was about. For the last six years Gamelab (the indie New York studio that we work for) has made a conference-wide game to be played during the GDC. What those people were doing was playing Gangs of GDC – this year’s installation of the Gamelab GDC game.

What the hell is Gangs of GDC?

Gangs of GDC was the world’s first (as far as we know) massively multiplayer mobile phone fighting game or MMMPFG. While the genre-name may be complicated, the game itself was actually pretty simple and straightforward. The theme was that rival gangs such as the Match Three Boyz and the MMOFOs are vying for control of the GDC by fighting over three neighborhoods scattered throughout the conference center. Each neighborhood consisted of a large flat-screen display set up in a high traffic area of the conference showing a grid of nine blocks.

Players would dial up a number displayed on the screen and be immediately placed on one of the blocks where they would either fight any rivals that were on the block or else flip the block over to their gang’s control. When fights occurred players resolved them through a simple rock-paper-scissors game where they pressed 1, 2 or 3 on their cell-phones to perform a light jab, a strong upper-cut or a devastating roundhouse respectively. Every five minutes each neighborhood would be scored and the gang that controlled the most blocks in a neighborhood would gain points for each block they controlled.

Read the full postmortem of the game design and development on Gamasutra:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070427/gamelab_01.shtml

Welcome to the Street! This will be a real running of the bulls. Get ready to trade stocks and rip-off your colleagues in this game of inside information around Wall Street.

Set-up: send an SMS to insider.yo@jumpword.com with the word “join” in the message.

(more…)

Shopmania is an inlay game we created at Gamelab for the publisher iWin. The player takes on the role Lewis a harried shopclerk working at the superstore $pendmoore. The game combines tongue-in-cheek satire with an addictive action puzzle game. I worked with Eric Zimmerman on general game design issues. I designed the second mode of play for the game, “Overtime.” This mode combines a sim with an action puzzle. Players earn money they can use to upgrade and design their own store.

The challenge was to create a set of different waves that would feel different on each play, yet have predictable difficulty arc. At the same time I hat to account for the different upgrades the player might buy. It was essential to not make the progression feel didactic, like a puzzle with only one right answer. Instead I wanted to give the player the feeling of an open-ended experience, full of interesting choices. This was important to make the player want to play through the level again and experiment with different upgrade combinations.

Download a copy at iWin. It’s fun. I promise.

From iWin’s description of Shopmania:

In SHOPMANIA, the customers keep on coming!

Welcome to your first day of work at the world’s largest department megastore — $pendmoore. You are Lewis, a retail clerk trying desperately to earn money to buy medicine for his sick hamster Gerry.

The $pendmoore motto is “WE do the thinking — so YOU don’t have to!” As every $pendmoore shopper comes into the store, it is your job to stuff their carts as full as possible before sending them out the door.

SHOPMANIA combines puzzle action with a heaping dose of frantic strategy. Manage the flow of customers as you fill up cart after cart, upgrading your department floor with retail goodies that make your job easier.

Can you keep up with the shoppers and make enough cash to finish the shift? Will your browbeating boss Mr. Willy give you a break? Will you ever save enough money to cure your sick hamster? Play SHOPMANIA and find out!

Another game we created for Playfirst at Gamelab. Plantasia offers a rather unusual casual game experience–a casual level-based sim. In each level, the player faces a new basic garden layout. The player must then pick the flowers they want to use, arrange them and keep them alive through the level as bugs and dryness threaten to undo your handiwork. Design for this was quite fun. With a robust level editor we could design interesting patterns and then provide access to specific flowers to offer different types of challenges. This allowed us to design levels with scripted elements for consistency, while also having some algorithmic elements that create a unique experience on each play.

I worked on the game design for this game with Nick Fortugno.

Download a copy at Playfirst.com

TURN THE STREETS INTO A PLAYGROUND BY RUNNING A GAME IN THE FIRST ANNUAL COME OUT & PLAY FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 22-24

THE MISSION
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The Come Out & Play Festival seeks to provide a forum for new types of public games and play. We want to bring together a public eager to rediscover the world around them through play with designers interested in producing innovative new games and experiences.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
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Come Out & Play is the first festival dedicated to street games. It is three days of play, talks and celebration, all focused on street games. The festival will have a headquarters in downtown Manhattan where participants can learn about upcoming games and see documentation of completed games. The games themselves will be run in a variety of public locations around New York City. From massive multi-player walk-in events to carefully constructed play performances, there will be something for every type of player. Throughout the festival players and designers will have the chance to interact during games and panels and jointly conceive the future of this growing form.

Street games is an inclusive term for real world games and game-like performances that transform urban public spaces in meaningful ways. Games played in public spaces are an increasingly popular phenomenon and often mix performance art and urban play, inviting players and spectators to re-examine the tapestry of the city. From city-wide scavenger hunts to the real-life games of Pac-Man played around Washington Square Park, these games invite participants to collaboratively re-imagine their surroundings through a set of simple rules. Players begin to see the very layout of the streets as a game board and never look at the city grid quite the same way again.

The festival will feature roughly 15 official events from September 22-24, 2006. Events will take place throughout New York City at a variety of locations and times.

Come Out & Play will enable artists and game designers to exchange ideas and work in front of and with a diverse audience. During the three-day festival, New Yorkers will engage with playful art pieces and games, discovering meaningful and emergent ways to interact in the public spaces of New York City. This festival will provide a unique opportunity for artists and game designers to meet and create engaging experiences for the public.

For more information visit:
comeoutandplay.org

SUBMIT TO THE FESTIVAL
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Have you got a game? We want to include as many different types of games as possible in the festival schedule.

We are looking specifically for games with defined goals and interesting, meaningful choices for the players. These games should be interactive and directly engage the participants. Your game can have a technology component or it can be old school with absolutely no tech; to us, it’s much more important that the game produce an interesting experience for the players. We will be reviewing submissions focusing on these criteria when we select games for the schedule.

The festival will largely be centered in lower Manhattan, so we encourage designers to utilize that area as a base for their games. But it is by no means a requirement. The whole city is fair game.
Most importantly, your game must be playable in New York City during the festival.

Your submission will be reviewed by a panel of experienced designers of street games including PacManhattan, B.U.G., Conqwest, and Seasons of Darkness. We really like playing in fun games. So make sure your game sounds fun and interesting. We like innovative use of public space. We like games which make people interact in new ways. We like games that alter your perception of your surroundings.

APPLICATION
To apply, visit www.comeoutandplay.org/submit.php and fill out an application form.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE
June 30, 2006

NOTIFICATION
We will notify you by e-mail if your game has been accepted into the festival schedule by July 14 2006.

We look forward to reading your proposal.

SCHEDULE
Submission deadline: June 30
Notifications: July 14
Festival: September 22-24

INQUIRIES?
Email us at info@comeoutandplay.org

PLAY or VOLUNTEER
Don’t have a game, but still want to play or be involved? Visit comeoutandplay.org to sign up for alerts about the festival.
URL
comeoutandplay.org