I'm thrilled to officially announce my newest game: The Lost Ring, an alternate reality adventure created for for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
As of this week, the game is live and you can play!
Here's my recommendation for quick and easy immersion into The Lost Ring:
1) First, watch The Lost Ring trailer at http://www.thelostring.com
2) Next, learn the legends of the ancient games, including The Lost Olypmic Sport, by watching the video podcasts at http://www.thelostgames.com/
3) Then, meet the global cast of characters -- they're blogging in eight different languages! -- at http://www.findthelostring.com/
4) Finally, if you're hooked, visit the players' wiki to catch up on the story and puzzles so far -- it's at http://olympics.wikibruce.com/Home
Before you all disappear down the rabbit hole and I step back behind the curtain, I just wanted to say that this has truly been a dream project for me, a chance to try alternate reality gaming at a truly global scale, and to create an alternate reality mythology for one of the world's oldest and greatest traditions. Plus, the idea of bringing together gamers and the Games and seeing what happens -- seriously, that is too much fun. I honestly never imagined as a game designer that I would have an opportunity as exciting as this.
(If you're curious how the opportunity came to me, and if you want to "peek behind the curtain" to learn more about my collaborators on the project -- AKQA, McDonalds, and the International Olympic Committee -- you can read Daniel Terdiman's Q & A with me here.)
But more importantly than what an adventure it has been for me, I really hope and believe that The Lost Ring will be the adventure of a lifetime for its players. Every aspect of the project has been designed so that at the end of the day, players will have gone on a journey together that they will never forget. It's something we want them to remember and talk about for the rest of their lives. That was our explicit mission statement!
In fact, what the heck, here's a sneak peak at some of the mission statement notes we drafted last summer when we first started developing the game:
" a game that changes people’s lives and brings the world together"
"an epic story that the whole world discovers and brings to life... a months-long adventure players will remember for the rest of their lives"
"the chance to be a part of something huge... a truly epic scale... to get to know people in 100 countries and make lifelong friends with them...."
"be a global force for fun, turnplayers into real-world superheroes... "
"fill the real world with magic... the whole world, every corner of it..."
So, yes, this has been an extremely ambitious project! But we've spent a year building an adventure we believe in, and I'm so proud of what we've created.
And now, happily, excitedly, we have six months now to watch it unfold...
And I won't say any more, because I want you to experience it for yourself.
