This week, Troy Innocent from Swinburne University came to present on his work in constructing narrative-based games in real physical environments.  The main example of this which Troy presented was his project Urban Codemakers, which played out in Melbourne and Sydney.

Sam and I have been contemplating ways to incorporate a physical dimension to our project, as an ancillary aspect of the digital gameplay.  By contrast, Urban Codemakers is fundamentally physical-based, with the digital component being a secondary/supporting aspect to log players’ progress in the real-world.

I was struck by the complexity and contrivances of the narrative, and the fantasy elements which abstracted players’ objectives from the reality of their environments.  This isn’t a negative; more a matter of taste, and got me thinking that if one is going to situate a game in a real environment, then perhaps one can enhance the immersive aspects of the gameplay by adapting the narrative to extentuate the real, the normal, the ordinary of its physical surroundings.