Zydnei

Overview

Almost ten years ago, Slashdot gushed about the alternate reality game promo experimenting with games that cross the boundaries of internet and reality. More recently, we’ve gotten excited about augmented reality overlays onto real life cities, from literary adventures to popup art.

Troy Innocent’s addition to the 19thInternational Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) conference (huddling under Vivid Ideas umbrella) will be a giant, competitive public treasure hunt, with a sideline some minor civil rearrangement. Zydnei divides its players into three factions — Codex, Oeknos and Dæmon — fighting to repurpose our city’s streets to a greater plan of their own. Volunteers will place coded tags around the city, before players track them down, take them off the walls and claim the tag for their own team.

The game is free and runs eight weeks, with new tags added all the time. In Melbourne the winning team regrew the city to their own plan. How will you help reshape Sydney, if you can?

Zydnei is free, but you'll need to register here.