Traces of Hope
An augmented reality game for teens raising awareness of the plight of civilians in conflict.
An augmented reality game for teens raising awareness of the plight of civilians in conflict.
Traces of Hope was the second augmented reality game ever created for a charity. We'd been hoping for an opportunity to make one for a while, and when the British Red Cross asked us to help them raise awareness of the plight of civilians caught up in conflict among teenagers, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The game follows the story of Joseph, a 16 year old boy who lives in Hopetown, a fictional refugee camp in northern Uganda. He's heard that a Red Cross messenger is visiting the camp within the next 24 hours, and wants to get a message to his mum, who he got separated from some time ago. He's also just found a British journalist's satellite phone, and decides to send a message to the first number he finds in the address book in the hope that someone can help - that's where the player comes in, communicating with Joseph through Skype style instant messages and the occasional brief, poor-quality video. The player, acting on clues given by Joseph and occasionally other characters who occasionally chip in, uses various resources around the internet to try and help him overcome the challenges he faces.
I worked on the game's storyline and script, and developed the fictional world in which it took place - we created a network of fake sites that held clues, and also planted information on various partner sites (including Reuters Alertnet, Yahoo and Spinebreakers, Penguin Books' youth site). I also created the game brand, cast Joseph and art directed the various photo and video shoots necessitated by the content.
The game was a massive success - it generated more press coverage than any other campaign the Red Cross had ever run (over 150 stories across offline media, online news sites and trade publications), and the game site had 85,000 players in its first three weeks. It won the 2009 One World Media Award for best use of new media, and was shortlisted for the PR Week awards. It's since been translated for use in various other countries, and is still online now (it was supposed to finish in December 2008). Have a go for yourself! And give me a ring if you get stuck.
The game follows the story of Joseph, a 16 year old boy who lives in Hopetown, a fictional refugee camp in northern Uganda. He's heard that a Red Cross messenger is visiting the camp within the next 24 hours, and wants to get a message to his mum, who he got separated from some time ago. He's also just found a British journalist's satellite phone, and decides to send a message to the first number he finds in the address book in the hope that someone can help - that's where the player comes in, communicating with Joseph through Skype style instant messages and the occasional brief, poor-quality video. The player, acting on clues given by Joseph and occasionally other characters who occasionally chip in, uses various resources around the internet to try and help him overcome the challenges he faces.
I worked on the game's storyline and script, and developed the fictional world in which it took place - we created a network of fake sites that held clues, and also planted information on various partner sites (including Reuters Alertnet, Yahoo and Spinebreakers, Penguin Books' youth site). I also created the game brand, cast Joseph and art directed the various photo and video shoots necessitated by the content.
The game was a massive success - it generated more press coverage than any other campaign the Red Cross had ever run (over 150 stories across offline media, online news sites and trade publications), and the game site had 85,000 players in its first three weeks. It won the 2009 One World Media Award for best use of new media, and was shortlisted for the PR Week awards. It's since been translated for use in various other countries, and is still online now (it was supposed to finish in December 2008). Have a go for yourself! And give me a ring if you get stuck.
I created a film-style poster for the game, which was stuck up in various prominent locations around London and used throughout the media.
We shot a few video transmissions from Joseph - in this one he nearly gets shot by a militia while he's out looking for firewood. We spent quite a while figuring out how to degrade and interrupt the video in post-production to accurately mimc a dropped transmission on a dodgy signal.
I pieced together a relaistic-looking satellite map of Joseph's camp out of bits of Google Earth. The map changed at various stages to reflect in-game time, so I had to do loads of versions with different atmospheric conditions, clouds and shadows.
