Chris Sumsky
Master’s Project
2012
Location-based services are becoming increasingly common as smart phones with embedded GPS technology establish themselves as a consumer norm, but these services are misused in conjunction with game design for these very platforms. As a result, location-based gaming has not yet found its way into mainstream culture and leaves much to be desired from this marriage of ideas. Specifically, developers are not combining the interest and appeal of location-based services with the casual, persistent game design that smart phone users are looking for. My project Overworld is a text-based multiplayer RPG that maps a fictional world onto the real world via GPS locations, which allows a player to travel through the fictional world using this technology. She is presented with unique choices and has to make informed decisions depending on where she is. With this strategy, the player will have new experiences in new locations while always working to enhance her character by in-game decisions. This project was designed and developed for the iPhone and distributed among a small group of testers.
