Blast Theory exhibition

This weekend me and Allie went to Exeter to have a look at the Blast Theory exhibition. After twenty years Blast Theory have created some great projects. The exhibition covered five of their best from stampede to can you see me know. It's the first time I have been to Exeter and it's a bit bigger than I thought so there were to delight of Allie some vintage shops to have a look in (she recommends them to anyone if you go there).



Anyway back to the exhibition. I am not going through all of the pieces but basically I loved them. I think there is something about Blast Theories work that they have done everything you want to do. They inspire you to go out and try something which I think can only be a testament of the pieces. I also really liked the way it was exhibited in Space X. I think what was also really interesting is looking back at how technology has allowed them to do new things but fundamentally the artistic nature and idea of what they were seems to have been there right from the start.



I think the thing that most stood out from the projects shown was the idea of the individual experience. Which for me personally is an ongoing issue with us trying to create games that have narrative and a mass participation nature yet feel individual. And above that again can make them to be sustainable. There is always going to be a debate about how games and story do or do not work together. And games such as everwake for us are experiments to see how this can work. slipping between technology and the physical. And this is what I felt Blast Theory was really investigating in an exciting way.

So that was it, a great day a bit cold but brilliant day. And then just as we decided to go home we chanced upon the sixth blast theory experience of the day. While walking around the museum in Exeter we saw the below. Allie had in the back of her mind that she had seen the name and we decided to give the number a ring. And we were taken through a very different tour of the museum.

what's in a genre? apparently a lot.

Since finishing the first episode of everwake we have been looking at ways of developing it for the future. In time we hope to develop it's complexity and make it of equal complexity of some tv series but across different media channels and obviously through games.

Now this is not an easy thing and we are aware it will take along time to bring this to the players but we think the different levels and complexities will make a truly brillant game and experience. But there are two points that have been nagging me about the project. Firstly the argument that games are not stories and indeed stories are not needed to make a game work, and when people say this to me I always think about how I skip through the story of contemporary games such as call of duty which further re-enforce this in my mind. Yet is this the case when it comes to pervasive type games that have real world elements surrounded by a theme.

A really quick way of describing this is thus. If we describe a game through a story or more importantly a cultural understanding then instantly there are rules, fears and all manner of information that people instantly recognise. So as I am talking about stories I will give you two examples:

example one - You are the survivor of a zombie apocalypse, you have to stay alive and make it to safety.

example two - The population of earth has been infected by a virus. billions of people have died from the virus with some people coming back from the dead but having a lust for blood and a desire to kill anything that is considered alive. Among the billions of people who died there are some people who seem to be immune from the virus and are looking for join together for safety reasons. You have to try and find these people are get to safety.

So through your cultural knowledge of zombies through books, films and general myths and legends you understand the who premise of the game and in someways a number of it's rules (such as run from zombies), in a single line. In contrast example two says the same thing but is so hard to understand and also more importantly 'get into'.

So this is a very simple example and I guess you could argue that the game can still be separated from the story. But I think the question is for the pervasive gamers. Is does the story add to the game? but more importantly does the story change the way you play the game? if yes then surely the story is hugely important to the game?


So on to the second part of the blog. The issue of making a story and how it is classified. I was having a conversation a week ago with Kev and allie about how everwake could develop. Looking at if it could have sci-fi elements in it or should it turn more into a thriller or simply stick to a ghost story? while we made no decisions what became apparent is that all three of us had a totally different view point of what stories and films fit into genres.

So as a test what genre would the following films/series fit in for you?

- X MEN
- Misfits
- Heroes
- LOST
- BATMAN
- 28 Days Later

So Sci-Fi, Paranormal, fantasy, thriller what would they be?

I think what I am getting at is that just as things are converging within the media, could that mean that generes are becoming twisted together?

Understanding the authenticity of a company

Up until innocent smoothies, it seems as though companies would strive to be as big as possible and the idea of being authentic or believable in that their story seemed to be unimportant. Since innocent however and also an ever growing move towards customer feedback and power. Companies are more and more informing people about their story and what they are up to. While this is not a new thing. Keeping with innocent who have now been trading for over 10 years now there does seem to be a growing development into this kind of storytelling. 

The story has become crucial and just as important as the product. However each story seems to hold true only within a very small area. For example companies stories have to be believable. So does this limit the size of future businesses? will it mean more niche markets? A company for every group perhaps? You can see the original stories of companies becoming disconnected with their original stand. Innocent for example are now the market leaders in the smoothie market and have a huge annual turnover, yet their story is of a small independent company. In marketing terms a David against Goliath battle. In this case though David did exactly what he did in the fable and now you start to question who is the minnow. And so does it now follow that the original story of small independent company in touch with their customers hold true?