The Drop: Pragmatic Problems in the Design of a Compelling, Pervasive Game by I. Smith, S. Consolvo and A. Lamarca (2005)

We are developing a new multiplayer pervasive game, called The Drop, designed to be compelling to play and yet practical to deploy in real-world settings. In The Drop, two teams use mobile phones to play a version of “capture the flag,” where one team hides a virtual “briefcase” in a public place and the other team attempts to find it within a specified amount of time. If the team that is searching for the briefcase finds it within the game’s time limit, they win; otherwise, the team that hid the briefcase wins. In this article we explain how the game is played, then discuss the technical, social, and business challenges we have faced while creating and implementing it.

Why do I blog this? what is interesting in this paper is that the authors not only describes the pervasive game they develop but they also provide the readers with different reflections about how game designers can face some issues when working on this project. The game design process is well explained. It reminds me what I blogged about Mogi Mogi's development. It's something also developed in this paper: The Design History of a Geolocalized Mobile Game: From the Engineering of Displacements to the Engineering of Encounters - A case study of the development of a mobile game based on the geolocation of terminals(whole proceeding as a pdf!) by Christian Licoppe & Guillot Romain