The strength and diversity of the city's creative industry will be illustrated in New York next weekend by SlingShot which staged the world’s biggest Pervasive Games Festival in Bristol earlier this summer – and is now exporting its particular brand of madness to the Big Apple with another new game.
It is called Hounded and represents a first for the gaming industry as it uses the sense of smell as the means by which players navigate their way through the game. What makes it particularly interesting is that it combines the latest smartphone technology with street gaming elements. SlingShot is partnering with BlueVia (www.bluevia.com), whose HashBlue SMS platform allows the players to register, text in their answers and stay in contact with the game’s coordinators.In short, groups of ‘foxes’ are chased by ‘dogs’, letting their noses guide them to the clues that will win them points and, ultimately, the game.
Hounded creators, Simon Johnson and Simon Evans, will be laying eight scent trails through New York City as part of the annual Come Out & Play festival. Players have to follow each particular scent trail (which range from the floral notes of ‘rose’ to the stomach-churning ‘swamp’), collecting clues as they go, without being caught by one of the ‘dogs’ – both humans in costume and real, live animals.
It may all sound too weird to be taken seriously but SlingShot is beginning to make money. It started life in 2008 with a £9,000 development grant from the publicly-funded Media Sandbox R&D scheme and was already turning over £150,000 early this year. Its Bristol-based Igfest this spring had a budget of £90,000, employed 160 staff and attracted in the region of 1,500 players.
The company is also planning to tour up to four other major UK cities with its zombie-themed chase game 2.8 Hours in the autumn.
SlingShot is also in talks to develop games for a variety of commercial partners and is constantly expanding the range of games on offer.
The company says the success of its games illustrates the demand for a new form of entertainment built around play. Weird or not, SlingShot has created a new business model by charging players to take part in its events – another first in the pervasive gaming market.
SlingShot director Simon Evans said: “This is a whole new entertainment form that people are hungry for. This generation – more than any other – plays games, from football in the street to console games, and they are doing this into adulthood. Brands are wising up to this and are looking for new ways of giving consumers an opportunity to interact with their products. Our games do this in a way that’s playful and entertaining with the result that thousands of consumers are willing to engage.”
