Murder or misadventure? Be a time-travelling detective and contact the spirit world using your mobile phone. You have 1 day to solve the mysteries of 3 unexplained deaths at Woolwich Arsenal...
Commissioned by Stream as part of London 2012 Open Weekend in July 2009, this was a participatory art project that used story-telling and SMS messaging to investigate the local area. Using mobile gaming technology, players took part in a game that invited them to solve a series of clues and discover an unfolding story along the way.
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117376467712
StreamArts Project: www.streamarts.org.uk/projects/big-woolwich-txt-game
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| Players register their phones at the start |
The Big Woolwich TXT Game (BWTG) took place at Woolwich Arsenal on 25th July, 2009, starting at the Greenwich Heritage Centre in Artillery Square. The event attracted a diverse mix of players, including some regular location-based gamers, some geo-cachers [1] and several local families.
The experience was devised as a “murder mystery” detective trail through time, encouraging visitors to explore the site and discover its history.
The site-specific subject matter was the result of substantial research into local history. In addition to the development of the game system and the narratives, the game required props to be set up on location, careful curation during the day and a small investment in text messages. In this case, mobile phones were an obvious choice for the game platform, providing the means to access key texts in the narrative and enabling mobility for players.
