作者：Rui Curado

维基百科对于典型的另类实境游戏（ARG）的定义是“一种将现实世界当成平台的交互式网络叙述，并使用跨媒体讲故事方式去传达一个可能被参与者的理念或行动所改变的故事。”

我将在本篇文章中解释如何设计另类实境游戏的特殊变量。这也是我们现在在Zorean开发现实法医冒险游戏《Mark Lane’s Logs: Project H.U.M.A.N.》所采取的方法。我们可以说这是一款法医另类实境游戏（FARG）。

与类似的方法进行比较

巧合的是，Gamasutra上还有一篇来自Valve的Adam Foster所写的关于这一话题的文章。在他的文章中，Adam解释了Valve是如何设计《传送门2》中的谜题。为了获得设计现实交替谜题的灵感，我建议你们可以阅读他的这篇文章。

以下是他对于ARG的定义：

“能够在任何极端复杂的系统中所创造的‘游戏’。它并不需要将自己限制在传统的游戏平台上。它能够打破通常的边界并使用现实世界作为虚拟游戏世界的背景—-反复利用现有的物理元素，逻辑和社会规则与限制去执行游戏。”

这里存在一些共同点，也有一些不同点。基于ARG理念，我们在设计中让玩家可以摆脱平台界限，即让他们可以在任何能连网的设备上玩游戏。游戏故事，玩家在游戏中使用的资源和工具以及找到的线索都是现实的或者是基于现实世界。

但是不像传统ARG，《Mark Lane’s Logs’ Project H.U.M.A.N.》并不是真的发生在现实世界中。玩家不需要离开房间。尽管玩家使用的是现实物体（游戏邦煮：如笔，纸，剪刀等等）去追逐对象，但游戏还是发生在网络空间里。

理念

这是一款事后游戏，也就是关于一些已经发生的内容。也是关于取证。

想象已经发生了某一大事件。一些涉及这一事件的人和组织在网络上留下了相关痕迹。如文本，代码，照片，文件，聊天记录，线索，谜语等等。

在我们的设计中，玩家一开始只拥有来自Mark Lane的一条简讯。从那时起，他就需要遵循着Mark的步骤，找到他所找到的线索，并执行他所做的发现冒险。游戏理念是为了让玩家感受到他们正在揭露一个真实案例。在ARG中，简讯便是所谓的“兔子洞”。

我们并未提供任何软件。不像传统游戏那样，玩家需要下载并运行应用，我们的方法中便存在这些过程。我们所提供的初始包包含了各种信息，如如何开始游戏，一些初始线索，以及一些被装扮成故事组成部分的内容。

玩家因为被迷惑而接受挑战，进入网络空间去寻找能够帮自己发现并解决案例的内容。真相藏在网络中的某个地方。他就像被放置在野外似得。网络比计算机游戏沙盒大了无数倍。玩家该如何找到并追随线索？我们该如何确保玩家不会走入死胡同，或者迷失在线索里？我将在之后阐述这一特定风险。

我们需要确保玩家的法医调查工作尽量贴近现实。对于那些只喜欢每秒发射5环的玩家来说，这可能会非常无聊。但是对于那些沉迷于推理故事的人来说，这一理念将把谜题冒险类游戏带到一个全新的高度。

机制

为了玩游戏，玩家可以使用多种设备（游戏邦注：如计算机，笔记本电脑，平板电脑或手机）。而对于这款游戏，玩家无需在自己的计算机上安装任何东西，除了初始包。

游戏的潜在挑战是在调查中不断前进。为了在游戏中前进，玩家必须扮演法医的角色。如此，他将需要面对这些情况：

找到并阅读Mark Lane的日志（这是游戏的基础）

访问网站

下载文件

划分并组织收集到的证据

做记录

解决谜题，谜语和加密信息

进行推断和逻辑思考

玩家所找到的每一个证据都可能帮助他们发现故事的部分内容，解决问题和谜题，并可能引导着他们找出更多证据，而不断前进。你可能会添加一些“填料”去迷惑玩家。毕竟，法医调查总是在各种让人困惑的信息中不断前进。

玩家设置了他自己的研究方法。这可能只需要他们访问网站便可，但如此也可能导致玩家离目标对象越来越远。为了能够前进，他必须使用工具。也就是软件工具。玩家可以选择自己可触及的任何软件工具去帮助自己做调查。他也需要有序地组织自己发现的内容，做记录，进行搜索，连接，解决并思考。

当玩家收集到更多证据时，他便可能获得更高的分数。任何证据都是游戏中的道具，是玩家储存在自己设备中的文件（可能储存在云端）。他们可以从这些证据或网络中找到线索，例如在精心设置的页面上，或合法的现实网页中。

不像传统游戏那样，即大多数游戏都需要安装或下载，在这类型游戏中玩家是从带有几千字节的初始包开始，并且在他们的设备云端上还带有几兆的证据。

分数

玩家分数主要分两种：全局分数和完整分数。全局分数是根据玩家收集到的证据的类型，寻找证据所花费的时间等等元素而进行计算。获得较难找到的证据的分数往往更高。完整分数则代表你在游戏中进展的百分比。

这是我们在《Mark Lane’s Logs : Project H.U.M.A.N.》游戏中所使用的系统。你当然也能够使用其它的积分机制。

故事

故事和情节是游戏中最重要的一部分。因为ARG是注重体验而不只是游戏，所以故事的沉浸能力在玩家用户粘性中扮演着很重要的角色。

你的故事是否可信？我的意思是，你不需要创造一个有关中土大陆故事。毕竟我们在这里谈论的是现实性。是的，这便意味着不会出现龙这样的虚幻事物。

故事是否适合探索类游戏？故事是否具有特殊的功能或角色？游戏是否具有一个带有多个转折的有趣故事？这些都是你在为游戏设置情节时需要考虑的元素。

简单地创造一款益智游戏没有什么了不起。你应该通过添加一个强大且有关非常重要的主题的故事，从而赋予游戏乐趣。故事主题可以是关于政治，军事，犯罪或科学等等。这将为游戏添加额外的吸引力。

添加视觉效果

虽然游戏并不是基于传统的运行方式，但是这并不意味着它就可以缺少视觉效果。实际上在这种类型游戏中创造视觉体验非常重要。我们发现赋予游戏更大吸引力的一大方法便是让Mark在任务中拍照。这能让玩家感觉自己好像真正在那里似的。这就像是电影里的剧照。

以下是游戏中出现的一些照片：

你可以通过许可获取某些照片，但是有些却需要你亲自拍摄，特别是那些能够展现游戏独特一面的照片。

时间线

因为我们的FARG是一款事后游戏，所以有必要定义一个精确的时间线。整款游戏都将受到这一时间线的驱动。

故事时间线能够按照我们的需求划分成许多阶段。在我们的设计中，Mark时常会在自己的平板电脑上记录下任务的相关细节。我将这些步骤称为记录（所以游戏才会叫做《Mark Lane’s Logs》）。这些记录带有顺序，也就是所谓的主线。

我们该如何将游戏事件（或者步骤）呈现给玩家？这里存在着一些选择。可以采用线性或非线性呈现方法。基于第一种选择，玩家只有在完成之前的任务后才能前进到特定的时间点上。在我们的设计中，我们选择的是非线性方法：玩家可以在完成之前的任务前在时间线上前进。这将提高游戏难度，因为玩家将更加留意故事的顺序。

位置

你是否听过时空连续统一体这一概念？它是无处不在的，所以也存在于我们的游戏中。除了设置一个精确的时间线外，你还必须为每个时间点设置准确的位置。这点非常重要，因为它能帮助玩家在“准确的时间到达那里。”作为调查工作的一部分，也需要将位置设置为一个游戏元素。至少我们是这么做的。我们为Mark的每次记录都设置了位置，从而让我们能够将这一元素添加到游戏中。在我们的设计中，玩家必须将每个位置与Mark的每次记录联系在一起。

位置的设置该多精确呢？这完全取决于你自己。像我们便是尽可能找到Mark将访问的所有商店的精确位置。我们所谓的精确也就是10英尺的精确度。

谜题

游戏中所包含的谜题是一个较为灵活的要求。我的意思是，你可以将任何所想到的内容添加进去。但是你需要记住的一个重要设计原则便是，让玩家根据难度级别去追逐这些谜题。否则他们的游戏体验便会遭到破坏，游戏也会变得很奇怪。

不管是简单的填字游戏还是加密位表，你可以添加任何能想到的内容到游戏中。

线索

线索能够将游戏牢牢地维系在一起，所以它非常重要。另外一个重要元素是，玩家该如何判别自己所找到的内容是不是线索？线索总是非常有用。而在玩家眼前，所有事物都可能是均等的。即任何内容看起来都是有用的。

你可以将线索直接呈现在另一个游戏元素上，或者进行暗指。确保你能够“放大”暗指的线索，也就是提供一些选择元素去缩小玩家的搜索。

试错法对法医来说便非常重要，这是游戏的一大组成部分。你可以根据找到某些道具或者线索的难度为游戏道具设定分数。这里具有很大的灵活性。

线索系统

我们该如何确保玩家可以照样行事，找到线索并在游戏中前进呢？更重要的是，如何让“业余调查者”和“资深调查者”都能理解游戏？更更重要的是，如何让各种技能水平的玩家都能获得有趣的体验和挑战？

答案是基于一张逆转的鱼骨图：

这并不是一张真正的鱼骨图。但却非常接近。

这是FARG的核心。游戏的主线必须是最容易解决并找到的内容。实境游戏从本质上来看是基于网络的叙述，并且必须能让玩家轻松地找到这些叙述片段，因为是它们推动着玩家在故事中不断前进。

所有游戏道具都被连接在一起。为了发现这些道具，你就需要识别并结合更多线索。并且确保玩家会更难发现之后的游戏道具。

你可以注意到，在我们的设计中并未为线索设定分数。只有玩家所收集的游戏道具才有分数。位置也有分数，但是我们为此添加了一个查准率。即玩家越靠近位置，他所获得的分数便会越高。紧挨着游戏道具的数字便是玩家的基本分数。之所以说这是基本分数是因为你还可以使用其它元素，如“时间限制”：如玩家到达时间越迟，线索的价值便越低。

这一系统让技能不足的玩家也可以游戏与前进，并面对中等难度谜题的挑战。而硬核玩家将能面对游戏为自己量身打造的真正有难度的挑战。

现实世界的开发

如果你想要创造可信的体验，那么你便需要创造一些现实世界的内容。是的，也就是实质性内容，你可以碰触的内容。但如果游戏是存在于“网络空间”，我们又该怎么做到这点？

你可以选择避开这部分内容，但是你要知道，如果未做到这点，你便不可能在这个世界上找到任何具有创造性的内容。举个例子来说吧，Mark的秘密社团会使用早前的加密工具去交换信息。对此我们创造了一种全新的加密系统，和一个新“机器”。不幸的是在游戏还未发行前我并不能在此公布。这便是一种创造性，如果你也想要创造出一款独特有趣的游戏，你便可以采取这一方法。

以下便是我们所准备的一些现实内容：

绘制一些可在游戏中使用的对象

创造“古早”加密设备

布置游戏

因为游戏的基本理念是关于法医调查，所以游戏故事的所有内容都是已经发生的事。与大多数游戏不同的是，用户并不能设置故事，并且也不会对故事造成影响。

玩家在游戏中的任务便是做调查。你必须在游戏发行前设置好那些需要遗留在网上的内容。当然这需要进行预先计划。你必须将之前所设置好的线索与这种布置结合起来，如此才能让玩家接触到自己想要的游戏道具。

为了准备游戏你需要开始计划该在哪里留下线索和游戏道具（这些都是文件）。在此你可以发挥创造性，使用云储存服务，注册虚拟组织的专用域名，建立社交网站档案等等。你必须让玩家能够找到这些道具的URL，因此你需要将它们整合到游戏中。通常情况下线索能够将玩家引导到这些位置上。

创造现实性

如果我们能够将游戏故事和线索与网络真实内容更紧密地交织在一起，结果便会更好。虚拟角色必须在顶级社交网站上也拥有自己的档案。但是不要忘记遵守网站的服务条款。如果你创造了虚拟组织和公司，你应该也能够创造虚拟网站，和相对应的社交档案。

在现实世界的法医冒险中，你可能会将一些新闻故事的答案放在CNN或《纽约时报》等平台上。一些有关现实公司和真人的内容能够帮助玩家在游戏中前进。整合公共任务能够提升故事的可信度。但是我们也需要注意其中所包含的术语。我的建议是尽可能包含公众人物，但是只是表面上涉及。如此你便不会扯上法律问题了。

最终问题便是将游戏与玩家的现实融合在一起，如此他们便不会因为怀疑故事是否真的发生过而离开游戏。

盈利

我们需要想想该如何从游戏中获得盈利？解决方法便是将部分游戏内容放在一些软件或网站上。在我们的设计中，玩家与一个虚拟政府组织签了合同（在他们的网站上）。该网站是用于认证用户并根据他所提交的证据更新分数。你需要保证的另外一点便是玩家不能从网站偶尔提供的一些帮助上获得前进。

你也有可能找到属于自己的方法。例如，你可能执行一些可以购买的线索，或创造一个能够在玩家消费credits（游戏邦注：他们在之前购买的）时提供给他们帮助的“圣人”。

是否容易？

最后，你想要知道开发一款ARG是否是一个简单，快速且低风险的理念？答案便是，开发这类型游戏与开发其它常见类型游戏的难度是一样的。

举个例子吧，当你正在开发一款ARG游戏，你需要以现实性为基础。现实性会带给你许多限制。然后你必须执行大量的调查去创造让人相信的情节。

这并不是能快速完成的工作。ARG与RPG或FPS游戏的难度是相当，或者更难一点。虽然你无需处理3D模式，纹理，物理原色等内容，但是你也必须关注于有关信息的各种小细节：照片的EXIF数据上的时间戳消息必须与时间线相吻合，与现实世界间的联系必须经过不断验证，位置必须保持精确等等。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Designing a Forensic Alternate Reality Game

by Rui Curado

Typically, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is “an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and uses transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by participants’ ideas or actions”, as per the Wikipedia definition.

I’ll show in this article how a specific variant of Alternate Reality Games can be designed. This is the method we are currently applying at Zorean to develop the real-world forensic adventure game Mark Lane’s Logs: Project H.U.M.A.N.. We could call it a Forensic Alternate Reality Game (FARG).

Comparing to Similar Approaches

By coincidence, another article has just been posted here on Gamasutra by Valve’s Adam Foster regarding this subject. In his article, Adam explains how Valve designed the puzzles behind their Portal 2 announcement. To get inspiration on how to design alternate reality puzzles, I strongly advise you to read his blog post.

I’ll shamelessly copy his definition of an ARG:

“A ‘game’ can be built in any sufficiently complex system. It does not need to limit itself to traditionally game-specific platforms, be they hardware or software. It’s quite possible to break outside the usual boundaries and use the real world itself as the setting for your fictional game world – reusing existing physical, logical and societal rules and constraints to implement your game.”

There are some things in common here, while others are different. Aligned with the ARG concept, in our design we set the player free from platform boundaries, letting him play on any device with Internet access. The story, the resources he’ll use, the clues he’ll find, and the tools he’ll use are all real or based on the real world that surrounds him.

However, unlike traditional ARGs, Mark Lane’s Logs’ Project H.U.M.A.N. is not really played on the real world. The player doesn’t have to leave his room. The game is still played in cyberspace, although the player might use real world objects to pursue his objectives, like pen, paper, scissors, (hammer?)…

The Concept

This is a post-event game, that is, it’s about knowing as much as possible about something that already happened. It’s about forensics.

Imagine that something had happened. Something big. Traces of that event have been left on the Internet, by people and organizations that were involved. Text, codes, photos, documents, chat logs, clues, riddles. Anywhere on the Internet.

In our design, the player starts with just a SMS message from Mark Lane. From there, he has to reproduce Mark’s steps, find what he found, and live a discovery adventure just like he did. The idea is to make the player feel that he’s uncovering a real case. The SMS message is what’s called in ARG as the Rabbithole.

Then, there is no software supplied by us. Unlike a traditional game where the player must download and run an application, there is no such thing with our approach. The initial package we must supply will contain information about how to start the game, and some initial clues, everything already disguised as part of the story.

The player is enticed to take the challenge and go out to cyberspace looking for things that will help him discover and solve the case. The truth is somewhere out there, on the Internet. He’s out in the wild. The Internet is millions of times bigger than a computer game sandbox. How will the player find and follow a clue? How can we make sure the player doesn’t reach a dead-end, or simply gets lost in the clue thread? I’ll talk about this specific risk later on.

The player’s forensic investigation job should be as close to reality as we can make it. For those gamers that only like to be firing five rounds per second, this will be dead boring. But to mystery addicts, the concept brings the puzzle adventure type to a whole new level.

The Mechanics

To play, the player uses one or more devices of his choice (computer, laptop, tablet or phone). Specifically related to the game, the player has nothing installed in his computer, except probably for the initial package.

The game’s underlying challenge is to progress as much as possible in the investigation. To progress in the game the player must work as a forensic investigator. As such, he will need to, among many things:

Find and read Mark Lane’s logs (the game’s spinal cord)

Visit websites

Download files

Classify and organize collected evidence

Take notes

Solve puzzles, riddles and encrypted messages

Perform deductive and logic thinking

Each piece of evidence found *may* help the player discover a part of the story, solve problems and riddles, and might lead to more evidence, helping you progress further. You may add some “fillers” to confuse the player. After all, forensic investigation progresses on confusing information.

The player sets his own research methods. It’s possible to play by just visiting websites, but that will leave the player far from the objective. In order to progress, he will have to use tools. Software tools, that is. The player may choose whatever software tools he has within reach to help on his investigation. He should also organize his findings, take notes, search, connect, solve, think.

The more evidence the player collects, the higher he will score. Any piece of evidence is a game item, a file that the player stores on his device (or in the cloud, if it chooses to). Clues are found on these pieces of evidence, or anywhere on the Internet, like a specially-prepared page or, even better, a legitimate, real world web page.

Unlike traditional games, where most of the game is installed or downloaded, in this game the player starts with an initial package of a few kilobytes, and could end with a few megabytes of evidence on his device.

Scoring

The player is scored in two ways: a global numerical score and a completeness score. The global score is calculated according to several factors, including the type of collected evidence and the time taken to find it. Harder-to-find evidence is scored higher. The completeness score is a percentage that represents how far you have progressed in the game.

This is the system we are using for our Mark Lane’s Logs : Project H.U.M.A.N. game. You are of course free to set other scoring schemes.

The Story

The story and its plot is the most important part of the game. Because ARGs are meant to be experienced, not just played, the immersion ability of the story plays a key role in player engagement.

Is your story credible? I mean, you don’t expect to create a story about Middle-Earth being right next to Silicon Valley, don’t you? After all, we’re talking about reality here. Yes, that means no dragons too.

Does the story fit an exploration-type of game? Does the story have unique features or characters? Does it have an engaging story with multiple twists? These are all factors to consider while preparing a scenario for your players.

Building just a puzzle game would not be awesome. You put some awesomeness in the game by adding a strong underlying story, preferably regarding a very important topic. It could be political, military, criminal, or scientific. This would bring additional interest to the game.

Making It Visual

Just because there is no game running in the traditional sense, it doesn’t mean there are no visuals. In fact, creating a visual experience in this type of game is imperative. The way we found to make the game much more appealing was to have Mark taking photos on his mission. This gives the player the true sensation of being there. They’re like stills from a movie.

Here are some photos we are including in the game:

Some photos you can license, and others you’ll have to shoot them yourself, especially those that show unique aspects of the game.

The Timeline

Because our Forensic Alternate Reality Game (FARG) is a post-event game, a precise timeline can be defined. In fact, it has to be. The entire game will be driven by it.

The story timeline will be split into as many steps as we desire. In our design, Mark constantly registers every detail of his mission on his rugged tablet. We call each of these steps, a log (hence the game name Mark Lane’s Logs). These logs have a sequence. We call it the mainline.

How will the game events (or the steps) be presented to the player? There are several choices. It could be presented linearly or non-linearly. With the first choice, the player can only progress to a given timeline step if the previous one has been achieved. In our specific design, we have chosen the non-linear method: the player might advance in the timeline before achieving previous steps. This increases the game’s difficulty a bit because the player has to be careful about the order of the narrative.

Location

Never heard of the space-time continuum? It exists everywhere, and our game is no exception. Besides setting a precise timeline, you must set precise locations for every timeline step. This is very important as it will help the player “be there, at the right time”.
Being a part of the investigation efforts, you may set location as a game item. We, at least, did it. We had to set a location for each of Mark’s logs, so we took the opportunity to add this aspect to the game. In our design, the player must associate a precise location for each of Mark’s logs.

How precise must be the location? That’s up to you. We went as far as finding the precise location of several shops Mark will visit. And when we mean precise, we mean like ten-foot accuracy!

The Puzzles

The puzzles to include in the game is a very flexible requirement. I mean, you can put virtually anything you can come up with. But remember, one key design principle is to chain puzzles by their difficulty level. Otherwise gaming experience will suffer and the game may feel weird.

From a simple crossword puzzle to an encryption table, anything can be used as long as you are creative. I won’t show any examples here. There are plenty of examples around on the Internet.

The Clues

Clues will glue the game together and are very, very important. Another critical factor is, how will the player know something he finds is a clue? A clue is something useful. Before the player’s eyes, everything might look equal. Everything might look useful.

Clues can be presented directly in another game item, or they can be implied. Make sure implied clues can be “zoomed in”, that is, there is some kind of selection factor that will narrow the player’s search.

Trial-and-error is the life of a forensic investigator. It’s part of the game. Score your game items according to your perception of how hard it is to find such item, or how hard it is to find the clue itself. Lots of flexibility here.

The Clue System

So, how can we make sure the player can follow the leads, find clues and progress in the game? And, more importantly, how to make the game accessible to both the “amateur” and “professional” investigators? And even more importantly, how to make the player’s experience enjoyable and challenging to all skill levels?

The answer lies on an inverse fishbone diagram:

Well, it’s not really a fishbone diagram. But it’s close.

This is the heart of a FARG. The game’s mainline must be the easiest part to solve and find. Alternate Reality Games are essentially networked narratives, and these narrative pieces should be the easiest pieces to find, essentially because they drive the player along the story.

All game items are chained together. To be found, one or more clues have to be identified and combined if necessary. It must then be made increasingly difficult to find subsequent game items on the same discovery path.

Note that in our design we don’t score clues. Only collected game items are scored, based on our judgment on how hard it might be to reach them. Locations (L/L) are also scored, but here we add a precision factor. The closer the player gets, the higher the score will be. The numbers shown next to the game items are their base score. It’s called a base score because there are other factors that you can apply, like “time erosion”: the later you are, the less valuable is the clue.

This system allows less skilled players to play and progress, getting challenged by the intermediate difficulty puzzles. Hardcore players will get the chance to beat the really hard challenges prepared for them.

Real World Development

If you want to make the experience believable, sooner or later you’ll bump into the need of building real-world stuff. Yes, physical things. Things you can touch. But… what for, if the game is played in “cyberspace”?

You might avoid this part, but as you know, you won’t find nothing original in this world unless you create it. And that’s what we did! For instance, the secret society Mark will unveil exchanges messages using an ancient cryptographic tool. For this we invented a completely new crypto system, and a new “machine”. Unfortunately I can’t show it before the game’s release. This is something original, and you should also think the same way if you want to make the game unique and interesting.

These are real-world things we have to prepare, sometimes just to take a photo. We can’t show you more than this before the game is released.

Painting objects for use in the game

Building an original “ancient” crypto device

Laying Out the Game

Because the underlying concept is forensic investigation, everything in the game’s story has already happened. Contrary to most games, the user does not set the story, and has no influence in it.

The player’s job is to investigate. Something that is already “there”. The traces that have been left on the Internet must be set before the game launches. This has to be planned in advance, of course. You must combine this placement with the clues you have set, in order to make the player reach the desired game item.

To prepare the game you start planning where to leave the clues and the game items (these are files). You can be creative on this, using cloud storage services, registering dedicated domains for fictional organizations, hiding behind social network profiles, etc. The URLs of these items must be found by the player, and therefore a way to determine these must be contained in the game. Usually, clues will lead the player to these places.

Making It Real

The more we weave the game’s story and clues with the Internet’s true content, the better. The fictional characters must all have their own profiles on the top social networks. However, don’t forget to comply with the network’s TOS (terms of service). If you create fictional organizations and companies, you should also create fictional websites and, if you see fit, the corresponding social profiles.

In a real-world forensic adventure, you might put some answers on a news story on CNN or on the New York Times. Something about a real company or real person might help the player proceed. Involving public figures will give a lot of credibility to the story. However, be careful about in what terms you include them. My advice is to include public figures if possible, but only superficially and indirectly. You’ll be safer from legal problems that way.

The ultimate idea is to intertwine the game with the player’s reality so that he’ll be left wondering if the story didn’t actually happen.

Monetization

If the player is “released” on the Internet, on his own, how can we monetize this game? The solution is to have some part of the game locked behind some software or some web site. On our design, the player signs up with a fictional governmental organization, on its web site. This site is used to authenticate the user and to update his score based on the evidence he submits. Another thing to ensure is that the player cannot progress with some occasional help from the web site.

You may find your own alternate solution. For instance, you may implement clues that can be bought, or create an “oracle” that can help the player whenever he spends some credits he purchased in advance.

How Easy It Is, After All?

Finally, you want to know if developing an ARG is an easy, quick, and low-risk idea for your next hit, right? The right answer is that developing this type of games is as hard to develop as other, more common types.

For instance, when you are developing your ARG, you need to base it on reality. Reality imposes a lot of constraints. Then, you’ll have to perform massive amounts of research to build a credible scenario.

It’s not quick either. ARGs are just as complex, or even more complex as a RPG or FPS game. It’s just that the details are somewhere else. You don’t have to deal with 3D models, textures, physics and so on, but you have to take a lot of attention to tiny details regarding information: Timestamps on photo’s EXIF data must match the timeline, connections to the real world must be constantly validated, locations are (and remain) accurate, etc.（source：gamasutra）