This is the schedule of events for the weekend of ARGFest-o-Con 2014. This section will update as new information is released, so check back often. All times listed are preliminary and subject to change.
Dave Walker
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Our conference sessions this year include a variety of fantastic speakers and presenters, hosted by Master of Ceremonies, Dave Walker. As in previous years, most sessions will include Q&A time, which will be started by our Grand Inquisitor, Lucas J.W. Johnson. |
Thursday, July 31, 2014
IDEA Symposium Conference Sessions – 8:45 am to 5:30 pm
A new addition to the ARGFest-o-Con line-up, the Interactive Design in Entertainment and Art conference sessions will bring a greater focus on the development of transmedia campaigns and integration with, or expansion of, existing story worlds using transmedia techniques. Gain insight from industry professionals to improve your design and production experience.
8:45 am – 9:00 am
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Greetings and Announcements!
Come on in and grab a seat. |
9:00 am – 9:55 am |
Making Authentic Fiction
It’s hard to make a story truly immersive. And why bother anyway? I mean, it’s just a game, right? |
10:10 am – 11:00 am |
Stormtroopers can’t plug their ears … and other important lessons for putting on live events
So you have decided to put on an event in the “live” space. Now what? Experienced Event Producer Liz Smith will share harrowing tales from the crazy world of pop culture events, from small theatres up to huge convention halls. Gain insight into how to put on an event. Liz will discuss important event topics such as booking a venue, contracting talent, promotion and marketing, staffing, last-minute onsite problem solving and avoiding the Fire Marshall shutting you down. You’ll get a crash course in what you’ll need to consider when planning for your event. |
11:10 am – 12:00 pm |
From ARG Player to Emmy Award Winning Producer Jenni Powell will discuss her journey that went from playing ARGs, to producing some of the most viewed media on the internet such as the Emmy Award Winning The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Jenni’s humble beginnings experimenting with vlogging on YouTube eventually led her to work on some of the world’s top rated web series such as Lonelygirl15, The Guild, and BlackBoxTV. Join us as Jenni is interviewed by ARGNet’s own Michael Andersen as he uncovers Jenni’s story of taking her passion and turning it into a career. Then Michael and Jenni will delve deeper to discover what it really means to be a producer in this new transmedia space. |
1:35 pm – 2:25 pm |
Wag the Shaggy Dog Story: The Experience Designer’s Dilemma
Shaggy dog stories and immersive experiences – they’re all about delivery. They require a fine sense of audience expectations and how to playfully subvert them. But it can be a fine line between a delightful shift in perspective and pulling the rug out. Working constructively around that line is the experience designer’s dilemma. |
2:45 pm – 3:30 pm |
Design Decisions in Indie ARGs: Managing Expectations for Your Project and Your Players
There’s hundreds of decisions to be made when developing any project, but the fluidity of alternate reality games and other transmedia experiences adds a layer of complexity that makes those decisions more meaningful than ever. Ryan and Stephen from Immersive Fiction, the team behind indie ARGs ‘We Are Earthborne’ and ‘Blackhollow Project’ will shed light on some of the interesting design challenges they faced on those two projects. They’ll discuss how the choices they made impacted their own expectations for the project, and most importantly, how they impacted the expectations of the players. |
3:45 pm – 4:30 pm |
In Pursuit of the Stand-Alone ARG: The Development of Extrasolar
Since the dawn of ARG history, way back in 2001, most ARGs have been funded by marketing agencies or grants. Projects like EA’s Majestic or Mind Candy’s Perplex City have attempted to produce self-supporting games in the genre with little commercial success. In this talk, Rob will discuss some of the critical design decisions and compromises that were made in the development of Extrasolar, the latest game to pursues the holy grail of the stand-alone ARG. |
4:45 pm – 5:30 pm |
A Deconstruction of The Maze of Games
The Maze of Games is game designer Mike Selinker’s ambitious multimedia project centered around an interactive puzzle novel. The “Solve Your Own Adventure” format requires readers to reassemble the novel’s pages by solving challenging puzzles. Come hear Mike tell the story of The Maze of Games’s 19-year journey to publication. Plus pick up a copy if you like! |
Social Events
6:30 pm – 10:00 pm |
Kick-Off Cocktail Party At its core, ARGFest-o-Con is designed to foster community and open dialogue between transmedia developers and audience members. The official social kick-off to ARGFest-o-Con 2014 Portland, where attendees get to mingle, catch up, or meet for the very first time, will be held at the Portland City Center Courtyard Marriott. H’ors d’oeuvres are included and a cash bar will be available. |
Friday, August 1, 2014
ARGFest Conference Sessions – 8:45 am to 5:30 pm
8:45 am – 9:00 am
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Greetings and Announcements! Come on in and grab a seat. There will be coffee service provided. YUM! |
9:00 am – 9:55 am |
The Game is afoot! – But where?
In the times of Alternate Reality Games, Europe was always some steps behind what was going on in the US – especially in the non-English speaking countries. But are we still waiting for the big ARGs or Transmedia Experiences in Europe? What has changed since those days and where are all the experiments with lots of creativity and interactive experiences? In this presentation we will see, what was and still is going on in Europe and what we can be waiting for within the next few years. |
10:10 am – 11:00 am |
FutureCoast: Listen to Your Futures
Back in February, chronofacts began appearing all over the world. Encoded in these objects were voicemails from the cloud of possible futures. These messages – by turns banal, mysterious, tender and terrifying – give an intimate view into the years 2020-2065. This is FutureCoast, a playful yet serious collaborative storytelling project about possibly climate changed futures. People played in front and behind the curtain: speculating about the futures that the voicemails must come from, then taking on the creative challenge of recording voicemails that truly seem to have leaked from our futures. And seeking out chronofacts as they fell… Join FutureCoast creator Ken Eklund and producer Sara Thacher for a participatory reprise of this innovative game for good, done in collaboration with Columbia University and funded by the National Science Foundation. |
11:10 am – 12:00 pm |
Ingress: From Player to PM Team
Linda Besh is a player in the Google’s Niantic Labs game Ingress, but to her friends she is a Mother of two, Financial Analyst, Accountant, and Event Planner, and her friends aren’t quite aware that she lives a double life. Linda will talk about how the ARG pulled her in and kept her captivated. Recently hired by Niantic Labs, she is now finding herself deeper into the story than she ever anticipated. |
1:35 pm – 2:40 pm |
Due to illness, “A Conversation with Jordan Weisman Part II: I Love Bees Edition” has been canceled. Join us in wishing Jordan a very speedy recovery.
Take a trip down memory lane as we examine the past, present and possible future of the Alternate Reality Gaming community with the Godfather of ARG, Steve Peters. As someone who has definitely been “there” and done “that”, Steve will share his insights into the importance of community and events such as ARGFest-o-Con. Moderated by the inimitable (according to Sara Thacher) Jonathan Waite. |
2:45 pm – 3:30 pm |
Phrenic: Integrating ARG Elements into an existing Transmedia Project
ARGs can add depth and reality-blurring interactivity to indie transmedia projects, which is what you need if you’re creating your own storyworld from scratch without well-known characters or entertainment brands. Mike Vogel talks about how he added ARG elements to his transmedia iOS app Phrenic and did it using existing platforms on an indie budget. |
3:45 pm – 4:30 pm |
Disney’s The Optimist – A Player’s Perspective
Join Hastin and Nick as they recap and explore how real Disney history interacts with a new fiction created by Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Pictures. Two over-excited Disney geeks recap an ARG that let players explore Los Angeles, get into special areas of Disneyland, join a secret society, see the future, and ultimately unite a mother and a daughter. |
4:45 pm – 5:30 pm |
Building a better ARG
With reference to two recent projects for Canal+ and Harlequin Mills and Boon, this presentation discusses how these projects created ARG-like experiences while employing techniques often found in regular games such as badges, rewards, points, instructions and strategy guides. |
Social Events
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm |
Keynote Dinner Each year, attendees enjoy a sumptuous repast followed by a personal presentation by respected luminaries from the ARG and Transmedia industry. Notable past speakers have included Jane McGonigal, Jordan Weisman, and Emmy® award-winning Evan Jones from Stitch Media. Continuing with our 10th Anniversary Celebration of I Love Bees, we welcome Jim Stewartson as our 2014 Keynote! How to Be Inspired by Ten Years of Screw-ups, Near Misses and Shattered Dreams Through massive ARGs, the bleeding edge of ‘transmedia’, and a legendary Startup Apocalypse, Jim shares an inside, unvarnished look at a decade of experimentation, what can be learned from it, and where it goes from here. |
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm |
Special Concert Event
Portland’s own The Doubleclicks are going to rock your world with their geeky brand of, and Geek branded, indie rock! Sister & sister! Cello & ukulele! Dungeons & Dragons! Sponsored by
Entrance to this event is included with the Keynote Dinner only! |
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Festival Sessions – 8:45 am – 5:00 pm
Festival sessions can include workshops, craft sessions, film screenings, the annual FestQuest puzzle trail, and more! Contact us if you would like to pitch an idea or run an event or break-out session.
8:45 am – 9:00 am
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Greetings and Announcements!
Come on in and grab a seat. |
9:00 am – 9:55 am |
Introduction to Conducttr
This is a hands-on tour for anyone who can bring their own laptop with Firefox browser who would like to see how Conducttr could save a lot of time and gain you a lot of sleep. We’ll look at how Conducttr helps with the development, implementation and management of an ARG. |
10:10 am – 10:50 am
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I Love Bees: Players Panel
Our 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of I Love Bees continues by focusing on the players of the game, whose 2004 adventure began with a flash of a link at the end of the Halo2 trailer, which led to a website that was acting very strangely. Join us as these players share their first hand experiences with this foundational ARG. |
11:10 am – 12:15 pm
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I Love Bees: Creators Panel
We conclude our 10 Year Anniversary Celebration of I Love Bees with the people who created the seminal game. Hear their stories of how the game came about, what went into producing the game, how it has affected their lives, and their thoughts on the lasting legacy of I Love Bees. |
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm |
Screening: The Age of Play
The Age of Play is a feature-length documentary covering today’s renaissance of games, focusing on veteran and emerging game designers, game festivals, big games/pervasive games, and the innovative new genre of alternate reality games. Filmmaker John Greg Gomez joins us to screen the film that has been over 5 years in the making and includes interviews with some of the most influential and up and coming game designers in the world. |
3:30 pm
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FestQuest FestQuest is an annual tradition, generally consisting of a real-world puzzle trail which teams of Questers follow throughout the surrounding host city. We are very pleased that this year is presented by Portland’s own Puzzled Pint! |
