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Swarm

Photo from Comfort of Strangers
» www.mediasandbox.co.uk/category/evans-johnson/

For Media Sandbox 2008 Simon Johnson and Simon Evans researched swarm theory and game dynamics to develop the Comfort of Strangers, a street game that uses HP Labs’ mscape technology (on iPaq PDAs) to follow one simple rule: stay close to your team mates, but away from the others.

Apr - Jun 2008

What are swarms, exactly? Swarms are groups of autonomous individuals coming together to achieve a common goal or a shared behaviour. Simon Johnson and Simon Evans are interested in enabling groups of individuals to use the power of their collective creativity to solve problems, create new experience and have fun.

Their swarm project, part of Media Sandbox 2008, culminated in the Comfort of Strangers, a team game that used HP Labs’ mscape technology (on iPaq PDAs), that was trialled at 2008’s debut igfest, the south west of England’s first street and pervasive games festival. It promotes communication, collaboration and trust – forty players on two teams score points by identifying and keeping close to their team mates, whilst avoiding their enemies.

Related Links:
www.simongames.co.uk