The first Off Grid Sprint Update

We decided that it would be a good idea to start writing more regular updates about what we’ve been up to - and what better time than every time we close a sprint in our development and start a new one?!  So, here’s the first ever public Off Grid sprint update.

More data mechanics!

Our main goal for the last sprint (and one before that) has been on improving the data-related game mechanics we have.  We’ve been busy coming up with new ideas for how data could be used in the game, and designing the underlying systems that would allow us to build a wide variety of interesting interactions around the data that exists in the game world (and that characters create when using their mobile devices, key cards, computers and so on).

Even creepier surveillance system

Our equivalent of the real-world PRISM, the system that tracks all data left behind by the player and all the other characters, needed updating to allow it to also track non-living data sources - phones, key cards, computers and other devices. So, no matter what the source of the data

Mozfest-astic

We had the privilege of being invited to demo the game at Mozilla’s Mozfest last weekend, as part of their Privacy Learning lab, and what a great time we had!

As well as facilitating, we got the chance to attend a few sessions too, my personal favorite being “Stay Connected! Mesh Networks, Routers, and Sneakernets” with harlo Holmes (@harlo) from The Guardian Project. Harlo went through the planning phases and possible tech required for building a mesh network in your neighborhood and what alternatives and other projects there are already out there.

Last fortnight ORG hackday, this week Mozfest!

We popped along to the Open Rights Groups hackday to see what wild ORG hacks we could try and plumb into the game and generally just meet some of the lovely folks in the ORG community, building awesome tools for advocacy.

We decided to try and pull web content from other participants projects and find fun ways of displaying them in the game using CoherentUi, our HUD and GUI system that is build on HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Morning Folks! Guess where we are today?!

If you have a ticket to Eurogamer over the next couple of days please swing by, say hello, and play the demo, we’d love to meet you!

http://www.eurogamerexpo.com/

Who needs a shotgun?

Right after the Kill Screen article we got an e-mail from Andrew Webster asking some questions about our game’s backgrounds and some of the design choices we’ve made. And a few days later this article made it’s appearance on The Verge:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/18/5915621/off-grid-privacy-game