Come out and Play

Come out and Play

When I say play what comes to mind? Well many things come to mind. You can play a game, you can play can play an instrument. You can play by with others or you can play by yourself. And now with online technology you can you can even by yourself with others. All are different experiences and all have their own differences experiences. They also have their own benefits that fit into our lives. These are some of the topics that Come out and Play Co-Creator Nicolas Fortugno presented Come Out and Play as case study at StoryCode on at Lincoln Center Film Center.

Come out and Play describes itself as a “an annual festival of street games that turns New York City & San Francisco into a giant playground. We provide a forum for new types of public games and play by bringing together players eager to interact with the world around them and designers producing innovative new games and experiences.” That being said Fortugno goes into the elements of social play by talking about his experiences and creating games for social play with Come Out and Play goes about. He starts with a definition of games from Bernard Suits “ The voluntary effort to overcome unnecessary obstacles “. From there he goes in what Come out and Play is all about what some of what he has learned in designing games for social play in the worlds transmedia, real world or location based games and online. “Making games is very about that placing obstacles in peoples way to make the thing interesting. And sometime you do it right and you place the right obstacles in their way and the thing is fun and sometimes you don’t. Using the a comparison between of a regular person and professional soccer player Fortugno gets right the core of what makes a games a game. “Taking this moment of play and transform it into a game formalizing it. What are the goals and rules you put around it that thing. It very much about taking the core in a game and figuring out what can I do with that.”

While continuing his using soccer Fortugno explains the core mechanics of games. The core mechanics of soccer is kick the ball past somebody (in to the goal). Then you extrapolate that out then its about passing and defense and the off sides rule and that sort of thing. In soccer it kick that ball into the goal.” Fortugno goes on further to explain how presenting the rules and finding the twist that people create from game play. Which is that people do thing that you don’t expect with the game and you to go back and it do it all over again. Taking what the player has done that you did not expect and finding out what makes that cool, so you can add it the game. Fortugno goes into the why game play has changed over the years is because of a aging demographic the average gamer is in their late 30’s, game play moving into a more casual mode where people are asked to only give up a short period of their time. Also how the game audience has changed to include more people from different demographics. The importance of play is still important because of its benefits to the society and the world, that people learn how to interact and with one another and themselves. Who wants to play?

DIY DAYS

DIY DAYS

DYI Days is as the producers call it is a “is a roving gathering for those who create. Past stops have included Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia. FREE to participants and organized by volunteers – DIY DAYS is about the accessibility of ideas, resources and networking that can enable creators to fund, create, distribute and sustain.” DYI Days which New York event took place at The New School on March 3,2012 was a gathering of creative brain trust. Participants were able to take part in workshop workshops, think tanks, talks, etc to gain knowledge and help build their ideas from the wealth of sharing taking place. That is part of the beauty of DYI Days it is not just good for transmedia developers but for people in all creative mediums from music, gaming to journalism you name it. Also involved were non-creative fields that would like to share and pick new up new tools to energize their field. One example of that is education from scholars to elementary school education is well represented at DIY days. Two examples are Nicholas Diakopoulos and Story Pirates. Diakopoulos a Brown University graduate and known media researcher spoke on data and how it can be used in the world of creativity. Story Pirates multi- focused development program uses kids talent as writers to develop stories that that they create and Story Pirates act out, that is both educational and fun. They also graced the stage at the end of the event with a crazy story about creatives of the future that everyone seemed to really enjoy.

One of the highlights of the event is the pitch sessions. This is when they take time out from the event and regular attendees could come up to the microphone and pitch whatever they have, which could be anything. Attendees pitched everything from projects that they are working on that they might need some kind of help with too a school teacher who just want to find a way to enhance her classroom with some of the ideas that are present at the event. The list of invited speakers also specks volumes of the depth of DIY Days they included Playmatics Chief Creative Officer & Come Out and Play co-creator Nicholas Fortungo who talk about the benefits of social play. Also former lawyer turned activist Lina Srivastava who talked the use story to effect change by utilizing available multi-media platforms. Storycode the first Transmedia non-for-profit was also present at the event they head up a panel on the use of technology in transmedia storytelling. One of the events producers is story architect and director Lance Weiler who created the film and transmedia experience Pandemic that wowed folks at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. So he is stranger to transmedia and its importance in the future of media and beyond. Weiler stressed the importance of event like DIY Days to everyone in attendance no matter what you do. DIY Days seem like it has it only began to door open for new things for the future and beyond.

http://diydays.com/

http://www.nickdiakopoulos.com/

http://diydays.com/

http://storypirates.org/

http://storycode.org/

Social Samba

Social Samba

Social media has become big part our some of lives. Facebook in particular has millions of user and counting. And it not just regular people it has tons of companies that use it as well. Sharing the moments of their lives interacting with one each other being social. So it only makes since that transmedia creators use this robust tool as way to get their projects to the masses. To bring the story to audience in a way that they have become accustom looking at, via post. But how do you do it. With so many people placing post online and trying to reach an audience the same as you. Intruding Social Samba an online platform using Facebook in your transmedia projects. The description on the Social Samba itself as the following “Social Samba is scripted social networking - the scalable way for storytellers to engage fans and tell them a story through posts, images and videos. It's the experience of Facebook, but scripted so fans can experience it whenever they want.” The last part of that description “experience it whenever they want “ is very important because with the rapidly growing ways of engage with technology Social Samba has to be able to seen on the multitude of platforms. People are not just stuck to their desktop or laptop anymore. Oh no, people are using tablets, cell phones, gaming systems, etc. That is part of the magic of Social Samba. But that is not all.

Creators can use Social Samba have the audience become part of the story effecting what happens in the story. Let say you want the charters in you transmedia project to interact with the audience. Where the audience can talk to the charters and actually tell them what to do in certain situations. Making the audience a part of creating the storyline using social media. As Aaron Williams Social Samba Co-Founder, CEO describes that part of Social Samba this way “ Let say have James Bond character and he is hot the train of a weapons smuggling operation. You can decided if he follows the guns to South America or the money to Morocco.” Creators can use Social Samba as a to add a transmedia element to already existing project as was it was used in the movie like Dolphin Tale and Joyful Noise starring hip-hop legend Queen Lafits and country music icon Dolly Parton. The creator of Dolphin Tale used Social Samba in make the audience part of dolphin rescue. Joyful Noise used Social Samba as way for the audience join the choir in an online audition. Film is not the ones adding Social Samba to the mix. TV shows like USA Networks Psych are using Social Samba to in an online game called hastag killer. Where the audience helps the shows two lead charters track down a killer. The was game was so well received that is was a South by South West 2012 award finalist. Social Samba has proven itself to be effective tool to add an interactive element to projects.