As part of Games On Deck's "Road to the IGF Mobile" feature, we talk to KnowledgeWhere's John Carpenter about their IGF Mobile 2008 Innovation in Augmented Design Award (presented by Nvidia) finalist PhoneTag Elite, a location-tracking mobile game of "hide-and-seek".
Games On Deck: What kind of background do you have in the game industry or in making games?
John Carpenter: Initially we were involved in creating a privacy solution for GPS phones and four years ago that path led us to building mobile entertainment products. KnowledgeWhere has produced four mobile games and helped publish a fifth.
GOD: What motivated you to make your game?
JC: The idea for PhoneTag Elite came from LivePlanet, our partner out of Santa Monica, USA. They wanted to produce a massively multi-player, live action version of tag using mobile phones and came to KnowledgeWhere to conceptualize the idea and produce the game.
GOD: Where did you draw inspiration from in its design and implementation?
JC: Thankfully pop culture has been embracing the idea of spy-themed games, movies and TV shows lately so there was no shortage of inspiration for the design of our game. We wanted the users to experience play that was closer to a sport than that of a standard platform game.
GOD: What sort of development tools have you been using in the production of your game?
JC: We used the standard fare for J2ME game production: Eclipse, Wireless Toolkit and some other open source tools. In addition to that we have spent the last couple of years building and implementing a wide variety of tools and APIs for developing the games. These tools allow us to rapidly prototype different game versions for play testing and feedback.
GOD: What do you think the most interesting element of the game is?
JC: The game itself is unique in how the user becomes fully immersed by using the mobile device as an enabling tool for a real game of tag. The GPS within the phone tracks your opponents, and you use that information displayed on the screen to physically run to, and capture another player. In the past, mobile devices were limited in their platform capabilities, but the unique technology in PhoneTag Elite makes the gameplay exciting and your privacy secure.
The most compelling aspect of the game are the interactive abilities that allow for gameplay with people all over North America. The other aspects are the groundbreaking GPS technology integrated into the game, and the mobile marketing opportunities for major brands.
