Let me just say right now that those folks at Madison know how to throw a conference. The Games+Learning+Society (GLS) conference every summer in June is the highlight of my conference-going. In fact, if I had to choose only one to attend (and sometimes lack of funding requires I choose), GLS would be it. Good food (and lots of it!), down-to-earth, friendly people, and far too many interesting sessions and workshops. I always miss something useful because I'm somewhere else....useful.
One workshop I attended my first year was on ARIS (Augmented Reality Interactive Stories). With laptop and iTouch in hand, I learned to create a very (very) basic game with minimal characters, objects, and interactions. Nevertheless, it was exciting. I saw a way forward with the Harpers Ferry game at last. The ARIS editor worked with Google maps, and once created, characters, objects, and plaques could be dragged to the map, geolocating them. Now don't be seduced into thinking that you can create a few characters and objects, throw them on the map, and you've got a game. It's a bit more complicated than that, and if you want to be really slick (incorporating video and voiceover, etc.), it gets more complicated still. I didn't really realize that at the time, though; all I knew was that I could make a start.
And thank goodness for the extraordinary online ARIS community that is available to offer support, assistance, and solutions. They have collectively helped me through numerous problems, actual bugs, and stupid mistakes. I couldn't have reached where I am today without them.
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