Mobile Location Based Games
From Mobileradicals
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PAC-LAN (www.pac-lan.com)
PAC-LAN is a novel version of the video game PACMAN in which human players play the game on a maze based on Alexandra Park at Lancaster University campus. To play the game the PAC-LAN player collects pills using the mobile which are in the form of colored plastic discs containing RFID tags placed around the maze. Four other players take the role of the ghosts who attempt to hunt down the PAC-LAN. A Java application, running on a mobile phone connects PAC-LAN and the Ghosts to a central game server using GPRS.The server relays to PAC-LAN his current position and that of the ghosts based on the pills he has collected. The pills can also be used by the ghosts, not to gain points, but to obtain PAC-LAN’s last known position which will only be updated when they interact with another pill. The ghosts ‘kill’ PAC-LAN by detecting him via RFID on his clothing (or costume). Similarly when PAC-LAN collects a power pill he is then able to kill the ghosts using the same RFID detection process. Dead ghosts must then return to the central point to be reactivated into the game. Points are allocated on pills collected and ghosts killed. The central point is controlled by the server and a special RFID point to ensure ghosts remain immobile until released. PAC-LAN The Game Site
MobHunt
The inspiration for Treasure hunt games arguably started with the early stages of the development of archaeology as this arguably included a significant aspect of treasure hunts and they certainly served to capture public imagination. Treasure Hunt games are either a single player or a group of players trying to find hidden articles, locations or places by using a series of clues. In the earliest versions of these games the clues consisted of pieces of paper secreted at specific location. A modern variant of this is Geocaching which is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. In our version of treasure hunt for mobile phones, known as MobHunt,clues are placed on RFID tags which can be read by a suitably equipped mobile phone and information can be changed or added in real-time using the data network.
Toejam and Earl (Coming Soon)
This particular location based game takes its inspiration from the Sega Megadrive Classic and requires two central players who take on the roles of Toejam and Earl. The game is controlled by a mobile game controller, known as the Great Funkapotamus (a homage to the second Megadrive game Panic on Funkatron) who acts as the arbiter of the tasks that form part of the game. The game starts by reading the first RFID tag which contains a compass bearing and clue to the location of the next tag. As the model of phone used also has a compass application this is used to find the desired direction of travel. Subsequent tags not only contain a compass bearing but one, or more, randomly generated presents which they can open or save. Some of the presents are pieces of the spaceship which mark your progress and hence points through the game whilst the others contain more interesting items. Many of the other presents require you to act out events that are part of the original game along with members of the public who they must persuade to join in whilst the fellow character takes a picture which is sent to the Great Funkapotamus. Once a present has been opened the task must be performed to the satisfaction of the Funkapotamus before Toejam and Earl can proceed with the game. Tasks include dancing the hula, find a dentist (although not necessarily insane) etc. More pleasant presents allow you to exchange one unwanted task for randomly generated new present. These exchanges can be taken at any point within the game. We are incorporating sounds from the original game into the play with the kind permission Greg Johnson one of the original games developers.
GoogleTron (Coming Soon)
This project is aimed at producing and field testing a mixed reality game using mobile phones, GPS, and Google maps based on the old arcade classic Tron. In the arcade version players travel around a game space leaving a trail behind them representing the path they have taken The object is to travel as far as possible without crossing either your own path or that of an opposing player. In this version online players will guide human players carrying mobile phones and GPS units around a game maze which can be placed at any physical location. The online players will see the game maze placed over the actual location on Google maps which will also show the positions of all players and there trails.
They Howl (Coming Soon)
This is a location based game written in J2ME and utilises GPS to obtain positional information. The GPS unit is not an integrated part of the phone but rather we exploit the proliferation of GPS units that can be accessed via Bluetooth is cheaper and more readily available than integrated solutions.
The premise for the game itself builds on our experiences from PAC-LAN where sounds were perceived to be the best form of feedback. The sounds in this case are the howls of a wolf pack who are hunting down their prey in a mixed reality landscape. The howls from the wolves enable them to co-ordinate their efforts when following the virtual ‘scent’ trail left by the prey as the flee from the approaching pack.
The prey leaves a trail of virtual scent markers which are automatically generated every two minutes by the application. The wolves can detect a marker by coming within 25 metres of the scent marker. Once a wolf has found a scent marker they howl to the rest of the pack. They howl causes the display on the other wolves’ phones to indicate the direction they must travel to reach that scent marker which appears at the centre of the screen. The wolves must then work together to find the next marker and ultimately track down the prey. The prey also gets an update to his display showing the position of the pack. The prey is caught if two or more wolves come within 25 metres of the prey, having collected all the scent markers, at which point they all let out a group howl indicating their presence while the prey emits a death gurgle. The prey gains points for the length of time within the game and the distance travelled. Wolves gain points for both finding the scent markers and capturing the prey.
Whereas PAC-LAN required a pre formed group to be present at a specific location They Howl is designed for more spontaneous game play that using location although is not tied to a specific location. To facilitate this we have create a lobby system which will allow potential players to gather in any location to play the game. The game area is normally limited to 1 Km square and potential players can be anywhere within that square. Once there are a least three players the game can begin or they can wait for others to join up to a maximum of 10. The game server random selects a player to act as prey whilst the remaining players become wolves.
