One of the biggest complaints about the ARG storytelling format is if the audience doesn’t discover the story in the very beginning they feel like it would be too much work to get caught up on the narrative.  It’s like walking into a movie after it has been playing for twenty minutes.  By telling our story in short bursts and then putting the game in intermission we’ll make it easy for players to get caught up and hopefully they’ll be more willing to participate in future chapters.  This also solves another problematic aspect of traditional ARGs – most people can’t commit 6-8 weeks of their lives to a game that runs at the pace of real life.

This new format also allows us to adopt an iterative approach to game design similar to software development.  We’ll be able to take what we learned from Chapter 1.0 and roll that into Chapter 2.0 while keeping the same storyline.  It will also allow time between chapters to incorporate player actions into the plot of the story.  The story already has a very strong outline, but there are several places along the way that will be heavily affected by how the players interact with characters and interact within the storyworld.  It also gives us the opportunity to reward the most dedicated players with “guest appearances” as official characters in the story.

The last thing I’ll tell you about is our points system.  Players who register at MartinAggett.com will be able to earn “Facilitator Network Experience Points” (FXP) and climb the ranks on our leaderboard.  We’ll use the leaderboard rankings to reward the top players with character interaction, swag, guest appearances in the story, and other benefits.  If players also fill out the optional survey they will have a chance to get phone calls, packages, text messages, chat, tweets, or emails, from characters in the story.

We can’t wait to get this next phase of our project jump started!  Join us.

So, what can game designers do if they want to keep the “real time” aesthetic of traditional ARGs but still want to reach a large audience?  During his presentation, Patrick discussed several ways that VM-People is tackling the challenge, and Remix Fiction was busy taking notes.  Patrick noted that after the end of each campaign the most common question he gets is “Where do I have to register to get informed about the beginning of a new Alternate Reality Game?“.  VM-People’s answer to this question is their www.folge-dem-kaninchen.de website (in English “follow the white rabbit”) that allows players to register their interest and contact information so that they can be included in future projects.

We have done something similar with our Personalized Privacy Sign Up form where we ask questions about how you would like to interact with Remix Fiction characters and give you an opportunity to share contact information.  Like VM-People, we will never share this information with any third party and we will delete your information as soon as you send us an opt out notification.  So far, we’ve only used the contact information to send out a few postcards and a couple gifts, but as our game deadline gets closer we’ll be using our list to do more game mechanics testing,  and of course we’ll use it to send trailheads when our game launches next year.

What do you think?  Should game designers continue to create ARGs that play out in real time or should they shift to a more single-player and replayable mechanic?  Let us know in the comments.

[VIDEO] ARGfest – Follow the White Rabbit.

Jim has done something unprecedented in the independent ARG community.  He raised more than $7,000 in funding from one hundred people in about a month, and he did it with just a video proposal and a promise that the game would be “super duper fun”.  Pure Genius.

Jim spoke at ARGfest on the topic of casual games and we pulled him aside and asked him a few questions about Socks Incorporated.

RF: The majority of the backers pledged $25 and will receive “a limited edition Socks, Inc. embroidered patch featuring the game’s main character” – did you think that the patches would be such a big incentive to contribute?
JB: The value of the patch is not about it’s monetary value, but what it symbolizes.  The patch is similar to those given to girl and boy scouts for their achievements; and together we are making this game! Most of the backers are people who will be playing the game.  I also I sent a patch of 011iver to all of the players of Must Love Robots.

RF: How much influence did your internship at the Top Secret Dance Off have on the concept development for Socks Inc.?

JB: Jane McGonigal is a huge influence to everyone making ARGs and big games in general, but she has been an especially huge inspiration for me.  Seeing the behind the scenes of Top Secret Dance Off was a starting point for how a game like Socks, Inc. might work.

RF: Your last production included some adult-themed humor and a few swears – will Socks Inc. be rated G?  Are you trying to target a younger audience?

JB: Socks, Inc. is a family friendly game.  Everything will be PG rated, but there will be nods and winks to adult audiences, much like a Pixar movie.

RF: I know that you said you’re only in this for the “joy currency”, but are there any plans to monetize Socks Inc. in the future?

JB: The game will be free to play, but we are not eliminating other ways of monetizing it.  We are open to tasteful brand content, advertising, and merchandising.  Since this is one of the first funded indie ARG projects, we do want to start making head roads into creating a sustainable indie game ecosystem.  Another possible road to monetization is licensing our back-end platform that runs Socks, Inc’s core mechanic.  Daniel Grace, the super talented developer behind doomstick.com has been creating a robust system that can easily be used for other games in the future.  It is important to remember, that while we are open to generating $$$, our focus first and foremost is on making an awesome fun game.

ARGfest – Keeping it Casual (Jim Babb) from Martin Aggett on Vimeo.