Me being my alternative reality game fantasy adventure hero. Obviously.
Hail there fair travelers! I bid thee a good morrow! Prithee may thine faire eyes read thys blog post I hast writtyn?
Okay, I’m done with that. I’m here to introduce the first game we’ll be releasing under the much anticipated, Let There be Games! title tentatively named, Calendar of Legend. I’ll be upfront and say that if the name isn’t changed in a week when we start the open beta for the game, I will be very, very disappointed. But this isn’t a blog post about my disappointment (as captivating of a subject as that might be). No, instead this is a blog post about anticipation. Wild and unbridled anticipation.
This is a blog post about Calendar of Legend. The Calendar of Legend is unlike pretty much any other game I’ve developed — in that it is not a table top game or a role-playing game. It’s not even like the video game level designing I used to do as an 8 year-old. Calendar of Legend is what’s known as an Alternate Reality Game or ARG for short. ARGs (pronounced Argh! with an s at the end) are games that take place over the course of real life. That is to say that the game does not take place in a specific area for a specific amount of time where people can’t leave until the game is done, but instead that the game is played over the course of hours or days or weeks or months or years. Maybe somewhere someone has developed an ARG played over lifetimes.
I’ll explain by way of example. There is a popular game that goes by a variety of names — I know it as Assassin — where players all get a “mark” (someone else who’s playing the game) that they have to “kill” (murder) by shooting them with a dart gun (squirt gun or NERF gun) or kissing them with poison lipstick (any product by Revlon or Cover Girl) or whatever else. Once the game of Assassin has started the players go about their regular lives, but attempt to win the game by “killing” the other players. This means that if I decide to invite Simon to go out to a movie with me some night, it might be an innocent gesture or it could mean he’s my mark and I’m planning on taking him out… literally (okay, not literally). Now that you get the basic idea, no doubt you’re wondering, “But how does that make the game an ‘alternate reality’?”
First, thanks for the question, it perfectly sets up my next point. Second, ARGs are known as “alternate reality” games because they create an artificial or alternate reality that the players participate in alongside regular (less fun) reality. In reality I’m just a guy who shares an apartment with Simon, in alternate reality I am a stealthy saboteur who is slowly building trust with my intended hit. Get it? Good.
Now Assassin is probably a great game (I’ve never gotten to play it, sadly, though it’s on my list), but my big interest in ARGs revolves around games that improve your life. There are a variety of games that do things similar to what Calendar of Legend sets out to do. Most notably I have drawn inspiration from Epic Win! (an app for the iOS but sadly not for Android) and Chore Wars (a great concept though I personally think it needs a massive aesthetic overhaul). Like these games, Calendar of Legend takes place in a fantasy setting where you play a hero who intermittently battles monsters and earns experience points, gold, and treasures. Also like these games, Calendar of Legend is almost entirely played in the real world — your character never levels up for anything he does in the imagined setting; he levels up when you complete tasks in your real world life. Still also like these games, Calendar of Legend is designed to keep you positive and motivated towards completing your real life goals.
But Calendar of Legend does a lot that goes beyond those games in terms of defining what the game can and will do for you. Calendar of Legend is an Alternate Reality Game about leveling up in the areas of your life you’re most excited about, helping out your friends, and celebrating your successes with the other players. As of tonight I have launched a closed beta for the game with 7 other players but after a week of testing I plan on launching the game in an open beta for everyone to enjoy. I will also be participating in the open beta so, if you’re interested, I would love to game together. I hope you’ve heard enough to get you interested in Calendar of Legend specifically and Alternate Reality Games as a category and look forward to my grand reveal next week!
- Benjamina Beardlette
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