Heroes writer pens new AR game for Ovi
Conspiracy For Good seeks social change
What does a writer do when his one-time hit show flops badly and gets cancelled? Why, he teams up with Nokia to make an ambitious Augmented Reality project for mobile, of course.
Tim Kring, the chap behind Heroes, has contributed a story to Conspiracy For Good, which is out now for free on Series 40 and Nokia Symbian devices.
It pitches a secret do-gooding society (CFG) against one of those evil multinational corporations. You know, the kind that spills oil into the oceans and sends countries bankrupt. Boo!
Nokia isn’t calling this a game, though. According to the Ovi blog it’s a “movement” that “blends online and real-world tasks to effect social change through audience participation.” I’ve had some movements in my time, but never anything of that scale.
Conspiracy For Good creates, “a dramatic, fictional experience using interactive theatre, mobile and alternate reality gaming (ARG), music and physical participation to do good in the world.”
How can taking part in a big social game here in the UK do good in the real world, you ask? We’re not exactly sure, but Nokia claims that by participating players will ultimately “create social and educational change” for the Chataika Basic School in eastern Zambia.
And you thought beating your mate’s high score on Doodle Jump was satisfying.
Part of the experience will involve playing casual Ovi games such as Exclusion and Mainframe Liberator in order to unlock access codes in the wider Conspiracy For Good universe. You’ll also have to “steer characters away from the evil villains and discover destinations and meeting points on maps.”
UK players get an added incentive to sign up, with a special edition app entitled Conspiracy For Good: DeadDrop being released exclusively in the UK in mid-July. The app will require players to “point at objects and images in the real-world to discover clues and participate in challenges during the series of upcoming events in London.”
You can enter the story from any country through the Conspiracy For Good website.
