About location-based riddles (gameplay)
- Relationship between immersion and presence
- Treasure hunt works well
- Feeling of secret world
- It makes a huge difference whether game is played alone or with other people
- Importance of map
About story
Locative game narratives
Uncle Roy All Around You - Player looks for Uncle Roy by following remote instructions from him.
MOGI - Collecting objects.
I Like Frank - Find Frank.
REXplorer - Spirits in different town locations who all share history and give player quests.
Haunted planet games - Cast players as paranormal investigators equipped with paranormal detection devices (smartphones) and explore the real world in search of paranormal activity. By collecting all the evidence players eventually solve a mystery.
M. Haahr, "Reconciling immersion and presence: Locative game mechanics and narrative techniques for cultural heritage," 2017:
- What narrative games do best: Mystery, exploration, drama and adventure
- For locative games, there is a set of game mechanics known to work well, such as: Territorial mechanics (controlling the physical territory), resource gathering (involving physical movement), collection, levelling and training mechanics.
- Capture and collection mechanics are helpful especially if combined with puzzle mechanics, where you can use collected game objects to solve the puzzle or discover story
- Narrative structures. For locative cultural heritage games, it is better to consider standard narrative structures, like branching and decision points. These structures are immediately familiar to many players and it extends well to the genre: For example, the act of choosing between two branches at a decision point can be a physical act of walking, or choosing between two different destinations within the site.
Analysis/thoughts
- Finding a person by following clues seems to be a working genre in the locative gaming