luoti

Computer Courses in Finnish Schools, 1980-1995

petsaari — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 07:37:49 +0000

My PP-slides for HINC3 -conference (October 2010, Stockholm)

Insomnia Game approaching

petsaari — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:50:51 +0000

Beta-testing of our ARG-game for Imsomnia LAN-party has started. Simple called “Insomnia Game” consist of 4 game tournaments and several other minigames and puzzles. “Insomnia Game” will be launched 28. October and final puzzles will be solved during the early hours of 31. October.

Our protagonist “Ilmo Insomnic” in official game poster designed by Emmy Kurjenniemi & co.

Design and Implementation of Pervasive Games

petsaari — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:30:55 +0000

Workshop for Nordic DiGRA 2010

Pervasive games or location-based games usually represent a new type of games that augment the human group situation with the advantages of computing technology (usually GPS but also other embedded technologies) to realize new gaming experiences. Some of pervasive games are hybrid by design because they put emphasis on new media, environmental and cultural heritage education as well as literacy. This workshop is oriented towards practical game design and production: how to design and implement pervasive games? Workshop presents an excellent opportunity for making contacts between researchers and/or students, and to study different kind of pervasive game project cases from all over the world.

Working methods
1) Short demonstrations of different projects
2) Work in small groups
3) Summary and proposition for further activities

Workshop format
Participants can introduce their own games (old, new or games under construction) and share ideas or thoughts about the challenges or possibilities of pervasive games.

Date: 16.8.2010, 9:00-12:00 (more information coming during summer)

Contact

Workshop organizer
Senior Lecturer Petri Saarikoski (Digital Culture, University of Turku) and research worker Leila Stenfors from CoEx -project (Spaces, community practises and sharing of experiences), funded by Tekes and conducted by Tampere University of Technology, University of Tampere and University of Turku, 2009–2011.

Participation
Please, just send us email: petsaari [a] utu.fi. We also succest that you give us few lines about your projects / interests / suggestions for this workshop.

About CoEx-project
Pervasive game is one of the concepts, which will be elaborated and developed during the Finnish research project CoEx. In addition to the theoretical biases, the CoEx -project has been oriented towards practical game design and production. For example, department of Digital Culture (University of Turku) have developed several location-based hybrid games. One case example, which is examined more closely, is Insomnia Game (launched in October 2010), which is currently under development. Technology used in this game is mainly based on RFID tags. Its has also interesting connections to ARG-game genre. Main partner in cooperation is Insomnia Association, organizer of annual LAN Party event in City of Pori.

Tampere University of Technology (Advanced Multimedia Center) develops an exergaming platform that enables rapid prototype development. The idea of exergaming is to involve physical activity as a means of interacting with the game. The hope is that the sense of enjoyment that traditional video games produce can be harnessed to engage players in greater physical activity. The aim of Advanced Multimedia Center is to develop multiplayer exergaming solutions by utilizing smart phones and heart rate belts as game controllers – games are played on large public displays.

Links
CoEx-project (information in Finnish)
InSomnia LAN Party (information in Finnish)

The Making of Hybrid Games

petsaari — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:23:52 +0000

work shop proposal has been accepted for Digra Nordic

Digirakkaus vol 2

petsaari — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:10:20 +0000

Sorry no new updates for couple of months, but that’s because this blog is “only” a substitute for my former home pages. Anyway, just wanted to distribute this new call for papers for our new book project. Name: “Digirakkaus II” (referee publication), language: finnish. We have already 11 writers who have contributed their titles. Here is some examples (roughly translated):

Machine romances
Love and loving of blogs
Human relationships in Second Life
Hacker Love
Facebook dating
XXX-demos of demoscene

And her you can download call for papers and other information.

Computer Usage, Games and Dreams

petsaari — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:31:08 +0000

Just started to prepare a new article: the computer usage and dreams. Recently I have noticed that in Internet there are lots of interesting stories of how information technology has its own “afterlife” in dreams: people have continued their impossible word and excel-tasks, they have been sucked into nightmarish landscapes of computer games or they simple suddenly have nostalgic memories of their old computer history. Six years ago we collected computer reminiscences (some 700 stories) for our TIESU -research project (“Information technology in Finland after WWII”) and I found some 200 interesting references to computer usage in dreams (mostly about the after effects of extensive computer gaming). So far I have only managed to collect enough material for 2-3 hour lecture, but I hope that in April I might enough weeks for writing process. To Be Continued

Digital Culture in FB

petsaari — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:18:02 +0000

Come to see our new FB-group. Search for “Digitaalinen kulttuuri”. So far we have 98 members. Be one of them!

Pelaa! -exhibition: over 4000 visitors!

petsaari — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:50:34 +0000

Great news from Salo: statistics show that there has been some 4420 visitors during December and January (many of them families). Art and game exhibition was especially popular during the last weeks of January. Feedback has also been very positive. So we are very glad and I hope we have more game projects like!

“Best exhibition ever!”, a detail from the quest book

InSomnia Game

petsaari — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:18:07 +0000

Right now we are making plans for our next game project called “InSomnia Game”. Our partner in cooperation is local non-profit game association InSomnia Ry. They are most famous for their annual big Lan-party (first one was arranged in 2002 and this years event is scheduled at October 2010). We try to design and arrange an puzzle-oriented ARG-game for this party. So far… we only have some ideas.. Last week we had some preliminary discussions. Jaakko suggested that we could use some sort of “retrogame” aspect as well. Some archaic examples were mentioned: Pyjamarama (1984) and Frightmare (1988) Ringing bells? Anyone?

Demonstration lesson

petsaari — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:29:27 +0000

Yesterday I hold a public demonstration lesson for my job application. Officially the whole situation was strange, because by this time all of my fellow competitors had retired. I was the only applicant. Well… what about the lesson? Main title was roughly “Perspectives on the history of game cultures in Finland”. Lesson was a 20 minutes tour de force. Got “excellent” from my supervisors. Great