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Exegete

Students hunt down Poe-related items, (books, web sites, movies, collectibles) using a treasure map. They post items on the map and can barter ...

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Exegete

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    Slide 1:Exegete

    Design Document

    Slide 2:Exegete

    Exegete: “one who performs exegesis,” i.e. interpretation of texts.

    Slide 3:Social Responsibility

    Teaches college English students how to interpret literary texts. At the same time, it is fun.

    Slide 4:Brief Description

    Exegete is an Alternate Reality Game about a quest to unravel a mysterious conspiracy by studying and interpreting literary texts. Players solve a network of interconnected “games within the game.”

    Slide 5:Key Compelling Features

    Varied gameplay and high replay value Gameplay encourages thinking Singleplayer, multiplayer, collaborative, and competitive play available. Strong educational applications The puzzles are fun, but they also mean something. Mysterious narrative, parts of which come from famous authors.

    Slide 6:5 Levels, One Game

    A hero’s quest (Joseph Campbell) Each level features a different kind of gameplay, but all form one story. Player tries to escape a tower, pass through a labyrinth of texts, and return to the real world with new interpretative abilities.

    Slide 7:The Call to Adventure Players finds mysterious web site that challenges them to uncover a conspiracy and join a secret society of interpreters by locating and interpreting 5 texts.

    Slide 8:Level One: Passing the First Threshold

    To get the first clue, players solve a puzzle based on a Thomas Pynchon novel. They spell the name of a secret society by dragging hieroglyphics to the correct spots in a maze. Correct solution opens a window to download a 3D RPG environment.

    Level Two: Meeting the Mentors Players explore Chaucer’s world in a 3-D RPG environment and talk to “mentors” from his books, just as the collected works of an author let readers talk to a text from another time and place. Prototyped using Aurora Toolset from Neverwinter Nights. (above) Our hero, an old warrior monk named Gawain, stands outside of the Tabard Inn outside the walls of London, where the Canterbury pilgrims meet in Chaucer’s tales. (below) Gawain speaks to Dame Nature at the Parliament of Fowls (Chaucer’s famous Valentine poem on the assembly of birds) seeking information to inform his journey. Level Three: Trials and Tests This level is a real-life scavenger hunt based on the “Key to All Mythologies” in a George Eliot novel. Students use a key to figure out coded clues that they follow to find manuscripts, library call numbers, and artifacts. This is fun and helps them to practice research skills. Level Four: Descent Into the Underworld Students hunt down Poe-related items, (books, web sites, movies, collectibles) using a treasure map. They post items on the map and can barter items with other groups, competing to see who finds the most. Completing the hunt gives a password to a last web site.

    Slide 12:Multiple Endings: Final Victory or Defeat

    Students make hypertext choices about which version of a line in The Tempest is best. ‘Wife’ or ‘wise’? One letter can change the meaning of a word, a line, a scene, or even a whole play. How does the story change if Ferdinand is more enthralled with his father-in-law than with his new bride?

    Slide 13:Why the Gameplay is Fun

    Unraveling a complex mystery is entertaining, as ARG fans testify. Solving puzzles is addictive and intellectually satisfying, especially if the puzzles mean something. Because gameplay is varied, there is an activity for every type of gamer.

    Slide 14:Player Description

    Educational: College English students (sophomore through senior level) Commercial: Alternate Reality Gamers, Puzzle Gamers, Adventure Gamers

    Slide 15:Genre-bending Alternate Reality Game with adventure game elements.

    Comparable products: The Beast I Love Bees Call of Chthulu (2005): literary action-adventure game inspired by H.P. Lovecraft Indigo Prophecy (2005): heavily narrative-based action-adventure game

    Slide 16:Platforms

    PC and Macintosh School and home

    Slide 17:Development Schedule and Funding

    Estimated total development time: between 1.5 to 2 years (includes 6 months for unforeseen difficulties). Prototypes took us 3 months (not working on this full time), and the game would be 5 times this size. Possible funding sources: we will apply for academic grants.

    Slide 18:Projected Demand

    Educational: 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S multiplied by 1 class per university equals 80,000 student consumers per semester. Commercial: Between 0.5 and 2 million people played The Beast and between 10,000 and 2 million played I Love Bees.

    Slide 19:Marketing

    Primarily non-commercial, with possible commercial extensions. Serious Games movement has few literary games so far (an untapped market) Books used are interchangeable, but quest form remains the same. Purchased on subscription basis and/or packaged with literature anthologies.

    Slide 20:Thank You

    Thank you for listening. Let the quest begin! http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~howard/arg

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