Debrief
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CitiTag in Bristol: setup, initialise,
play, debrief!
CitiTag in Bristol: setup, initialise,
play, debrief!
06/29/2004 10:34 AMThis just in from Marc Eisenstadt....
Marc Eisenstadt
16.06.04
CitiTag, the wireless multiplayer game designed and developed
jointly between KMi, HPLabs Bristol, and the Royal College of Art, was
rolled out to the streets of Bristol today, garnering an enthusiastic
reception among the players.
The premise of CitiTag is that a game of ultimate simplicity (tag),
can be enhanced by empowering players with 'augmented reality': they
play out in the real world rather than a simulated world, with extra
'super-human' capabilities (such as radar alerts) provided through
portable technology. Complexity and innovation arise from the
interaction amongst the players, rather than from the game technology
and rules, which are kept simple.
For example, two innovations observed during today's play on the
streets of Bristol were (a) a 'stealth assassin', wherein a player
pretended to be on team A then switched suddenly to team B to quickly
tag/capture opponents, and (b) an 'invincible tag team' with one
'sniffer' operating out in front of cohorts, so that if suddenly
tagged he could be untagged by tag-team members out of range of the
opponents.
CitiTag uses a combination of technologies which, despite the media
excitement surrounding massively multiplayer games and 3G telephony,
has hitherto been unavailable: in particular, CitiTag brings together
GPS-satellite-tracking location services with WiFi networking to
provide large multiplayer support in a modern handheld PDA, in this
case an HP iPaq 4150.
CitiTag, designed by KMi's Yanna Vogiazou and Royal College of Art
PhD student Bas Raijmakers, has been co-developed by a team from KMi's
Centre for New Media (Kevin Quick and Jon Linney), who programmed the
multiplayer networking capabilities, and Ben Clayton, Paul Marsh,
Richard Hull from HPLabs Bristol, who programmed the Mobile Bristol
GPS location-based support for the game.
KMi's Lewis McCann provided technical support during the game,
along with HPLabs Stuart Martin and John Honniball. Jo Reid of HPLabs
provided overall supervision and support for the project, along with
KMi's Peter Scott and Marc Eisenstadt.
The photos above show, clockwise from upper left, the game
equipment being setup and tested, the players getting their setup
instructions out in St. Augustine's Parade in Bristol, the game in
full swing, and a debriefing session at NESTA Futurelab in the
Watershed at Bristol's Harbourside.
16 volunteer CitiTag players took part in today's experiment, which
pushes the limits of GPS/WiFi integration: each technology is designed
for radically different conditions, yet only this combination provides
the full functionality needed to play the game. Although both WiFi and
GPS signals have a tendency to 'drop out' in such a dynamic city
environment (where even a passing bus can alter the signal
characteristics), connectivity was 'good enough' to provide either a
continuous or nearly-continuous gaming experience for at least a dozen
of the players: enough to gather very valuable data.
Full analyses are now underway - and will form key elements of the
PhD work of Yanna and Bas
Related Links:
CitiTag - CNM
page
CitiTag -
Mobile Bristol page
HPLabs Mobile Bristol
Project
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