Touchy, the mobile game from Dan Zen will be featured in a short segment on CBC’s Dragon Den on January 18th, 2012 at 8PM.
Touchy – visit http://touchy.mobi – is available on the Apple iTunes store and Android Market. It is a social game where players physically try to touch each others’ mobile screens. So it is a game of reaching and protecting – with shrieks of laughter!
Arlene and Robert play Touchy on Dragons' Den
Arlene and Robert laughing after a game of Touchy
The pitch went well – but I was called in the day after a three day conference with late parties each night and this was just after a long open house – after I stopped talking, I could hardly get my mouth open – all I could do was nod and smile! Oh well – Inventor Dan Zen.
Touchy Inventor Dan Zen on Dragons' Den CBC
We would love your help getting Touchy out to the people – please check out the game on iTunes and Android Market – just search for Touchy – links are available at http://touchy.mobi, leave a review and tell anyone who you think would like to play – it is hard getting the message out to the youth – the primary market.
If you are interested in getting involved in an upcoming Touchy Tournament – find us on facebook and leave a message on the Wall – http://facebook.com/touchymobi – all the best!
Altura at http://altura.mobi is a Web / Mobile site that lets people partake and write pseudo interactive stories in a fun and free manner.
We will not give away exactly how it works until you try it! Suffice it to say, it is another interactive storytelling feature from creator Dan Zen – http://danzen.com to add to the long list of interactive fiction environments:
Dan Zen has just launched three mobile apps on iOS, Android and Playbook. The apps were made efficiently with Adobe Flash and Flash Builder. Just search the stores for the apps by Dan Zen.
TITLE: SWOODLE
BUILD: 2 Nights
DESC: Swoodle to hone your finger tai chi!
TITLE: WAVY!
BUILD: 1 Night
DESC: Wave your device to make sounds!
TITLE: TADA!
BUILD: 10 Nights
DESC: Decision and Faves tool.
The apps were uploaded to the three stores in one hour. This is amazing cross device efficiency from Adobe Flash and Flash Builder.
Dan Zen is the creator of TOUCHY the mobile app where players try to touch each others’ devices.
Can you detect PRIMALS? Order your friends by which ones joined facebook first. Drop yourself in the mix and keep score! The surprising game of social adoption.
TouchyTV has launched at http://touchy.tv with three episodes. Kayla and Alex commentate on games of Touchy.
Host Blip.tv shows the episodes one after the other with a slight delay or you can roll over the bottom of the video for a navigation.
Touchy is the mobile mediated game where you try and touch other players’ screen but do not let them touch yours. It is an iPhone/iPod Touch game available on the Apple App Store for $0.99 – look for Touchy by Dan Zen.
The Touchy site is at http://touchy.mobi. There is also a facebook application to challenge friends to a Touchy Duel – see the facebook page at http://facebook.com/touchymobi and go to the Touchy Duel application tab.
Have fun and please help spread the word. From our testing, Touchy is a transformative game with old friends laughing a new – teens finally finding that social icebreaker – parents getting an update on the old wrestle. We thank you for being a Touchy Ambassador!
Here is a look at inventing for the Internet written in 2005 looking back over the ten year period from 1995 up to 2005. In general, the focus was on making new use of the medium:
People can interact to make content not just view content
People can communicate with each other
A computer mediates to enforce rules of a game or environment
Production and distribution of virtual objects are free
Other inventive focus was the relation between story and game play. Sometimes a story would suggest game play but usually a relevant story was created for a given game play.
Here are the comments about inventing features for the Internet in the early years. Many of these ideas would have relevance being redone in today’s social media aware world – because we were socially aware in the past but perhaps did not quite have the platforms and sharing systems worked out.
Inventions for 2005 – 2010 will be the focus of the next posting.
You and your friends, foes, yoga mates, family, competitors, party goers, etc. press the TOGETHER button at the same time and then try and touch each other’s targets. The Touch application records how long each target is touched and awards points at the end. Past scores and win-loss-ties are saved and totaled and an average is calculated.
WARNING – playing Touchy can easily result in minor injuries so play carefully – Dan Zen is not responsible for any damage to yourselves or your devices.
The first mobile app I created was “phone says” in 2001 where you have to do what the phone says no matter where you are…
This was an early example of a mobile mediated game. Touchy is another where the game is outside the mobile device but the device acts to enforce rules or some aspect of play.
Mediated means to sit in the middle. Like a medium. Mediated reality is made up of augmented reality and diminished reality. Augmented is when we add to reality like adding descriptions to shapes we recognize. Diminished is when we take away from reality such as removing advertisements.
I have been involved in hundreds of mobile prototypes all with the focus of multimedia pioneering to take the extra aspect of location in to account. I cannot recall coming across an application like Touchy. So simple a concept and execution – but very inventive none the less.
The implementation of the “Together” button avoids complex multiuser functionality. It allows for synchronous play much like the starting gun in a race. Yet as far as I can tell, this functionality has not been implemented in a mobile game. If you find an example, please let us know.
Now why not try Touchy – you will need to get some friends involved too!
Agency Zen has launched its second facebook application. Stick Aliens lets you use the Oracle to determine your alien tendencies. To use the Oracle just drag the eye or any of its icons around and then the Oracle will provide a Stick Alien vision on your profile page.
The plan is also to launch Stick Aliens through Open Social and one day enhance the feature to solve mystical puzzles based on which aliens your friends have. Enjoy!
Group Games is a new concept that in a sense hacks the facebook groups to create games where the leaders are those with the most group members or pictures or wall posts of a certain type, etc. Here is a link to the Group Game group on facebook. Note, that anybody can make a group game and it does not require coding. If you are interested, please consider adding it to the group game page and be part of the collective.
Nano Race! Is the first group game where you join one of the groups that are working towards being shrunk to nano size to gain great speed, strength and riches. How exactly that works is up to the players to role play. The group with the most explorers is winning the race!
The groups are pictured below but do not link through to the game. It is best if you join the overall game group for nano race by clicking the Join Group link at right. Then pick one of the groups by clicking the link to the group and then JOINING the colony group. Then invite friends and write on walls to role play the game.
Pccchooooooo! What speed! What Serenity! The two do not usually go together but then again it is not every day that you get to fly a jet pack through peaceful puffy clouds.
There are a million clouds on which you can sit and look up or down, drink tea, read a book and of course think deep thoughts.
But like anything, there are environmental concerns. Will the clouds last forever? How do we fill our jet pack? A bit of a twisted take on non-renewable resources. We will let you discover the answer if you have not already.
Thanks go to Steve Mazza whose jet men on clouds was overwhelmingly inspirational! As soon as I got home from his exhibit (see the picture below), I had to seek therapy in constructing this feature in time for the upcoming Iron Man boom and of course building on our fascination from early James Bond, Rocket Robin Hood, etc.
Steve Mazza work from Future Tense show at Transit Gallery, Hamilton Canada
Jason Evangelinos has won the Chat Nap challenge at http://www.chatnap.com. He had 53 wins narrowly beating out the second place player who was at 49! Jason, pictured here on his motorcycle with the iPod 2 gig Nano prize, is a master of speed and response!
Chat Nap is the new game from inventor Dan Zen where you try and catch your friends away from their instant messenger when they say they are there! There are over 500 players in the first few months ~ keep spreading the word!
Be the first person to reach 50 wins and win an iPod 2G Nano!
Chat Nap is the game where you try and catch your friends away from their instant messenger!
Chat Nap Contest Rules:
1. To play, click START at Chat Nap: http://www.chatnap.com – current players and their wins are eligible.
2. A win shows up on your Chat Nap SCORES page as a Win (W).
3. For this contest there is a maximum of 5 wins per day. Any wins over 5 per day will not be counted for the contest but note that they will still show up in your Chat Nap SCORES page.
4. You must win against at least 3 different players.
5. E-mail garden@danzen.com with the subject "Chat Nap Contest" once you think you have won and include your mailing address and if you want a black or white iPod.
6. Once verified, the winner will be announced and will receive an iPod 2G Nano delivered from Amazon.
Chat Nap Rules:
1. Players sign up through the START link
2. To challenge another player click CHALLENGE
3. Message the resulting link to the other player
4. If they click the link in time they score
5. If they do not click the link in time you score
6. View player scores through the SCORES link
7. subscribe to the rss 2.0 feed to watch scores
DISPUTES
No score is given until a player clicks a link
If a link is not clicked in 12 hours it is disputed
This catches requesting a link and not messaging it
This also catches receiving a link and not clicking it
Players can dispute the time of the link
This catches a delay in messaging the link
Disputed scores are marked as a tie on both players
Disputed scores are not desirable
You use Chatnap to create a URL that you paste into a friend’s instant messenger window. If the friend clicks the URL within five minutes they win a point and you lose a point. If they do not click within five minutes then they have been caught chat napping and they lose a point and you win a point.
Sign in under START then under CHALLENGE you can create a friends list and challenge your friends. Under SCORE you can see your score and your friends’ scores. Even sign up for an RSS feed to keep track of whenever they score or lose a point.
WannaGet is the collecting game for a collection of collectors ;-). And it is designed specifically for content creators – like site owners and Bloggers – to offer their viewers something fun.
You can collect items in a number of topics (like Harry Potter, Narnia, James Bond) and as more providers create sites, there will be more items to collect. You get points for collecting – click to read the rules and play!
MotoGami is a set of motion games including ChooFu, ConGon, KiteKilt and InfiZoom. It is hoped to add more in the future.
Motion games tend to use dynamic animations, hit tests, dragging, etc. Often the simple game play can be embellished with a fun story. For example, jumping or ducking objects turned into ChooFu where you practice Kung Fu on top of a train avoiding the smoke puffs to keep your guy clean. Or a spotlight that gets smaller each time you find and click something with it becomes a search light for cons as you try and capture them after a jail break.
Dan Zen generally tries to make “mind games” with storytelling and community as opposed to frivolous motion games, but it in this case, it was fun to let loose.
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Group Games is a new concept that in a sense hacks the facebook groups to create games where the leaders are those with the most group members or pictures or wall posts of a certain type, etc. Here is a link to the 
Dan Zen 