We're going to SXSW!

I just got word that our talk, Beyond Check-Ins: Location Based Game Design has been accepted! We're excited to talk about some of what we've learned in this area. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Seek 'n Spell Approved by Apple!

The past few months of work have finally come to fruition, and you'll soon be able to get Seek 'n Spell in the App Store! The tentative release date is Monday, but that could potentially change. We'll keep you posted on the details.

We're pretty stoked about the release, as there aren't any other apps that utilize iPhone technologies in quite the same way. There are a ton of opportunities for developing additional outdoor GPS games, and it's really exciting to have created such an innovative product.

If you've been following the blog, you'll have seen the video of the first official play test for the new app, some screenshots of later testing, and posts for our weekly games. All this should give you the gist of things, but we haven't really provided an in-depth explanation of Seek 'n Spell. So if you haven't yet taken a look at the site or the latest video to see what it's all about, here's everything you need to know.

Seek 'n Spell combines outdoor spaces with virtual letters in a mad scrambling competition to collect letters and make the most words, thus proving yourself to be faster and have a larger vocabulary than all your friends. The basic steps for enjoying Seek 'n Spell are simple:

1. Grab a few of your iPhone-toting buddies and head out to the nearest outdoor space (like a park). Since the game uses GPS, try to stay away from tall trees or buildings that might interfere with the signal.
2. Fire up Seek 'n Spell, create or join a game, enter your initials, pick how long you want to play, and wait for the satellite map of your location to load.
   
3. When the game starts, a bunch of letter tiles will be dropped randomly around your playing field.
4. Race each other to collect the letters. You'll be able to see yourself and the other players on the map, so use this information to get the letters you need before your friends.
5. Spell out your best 3+ letter words. Longer words mean more points! Try to get the golden letters if you can - they double your word score.
   
6. When time runs out, the person with the most points gets to rub it in everyone's face.
   

This is how the fun begins, and we've already started thinking about what features we'll add for the v.2 release down the road. One thing we have in mind is bonus power-up tiles that could freeze people's movements for 15 seconds, shuffle letters around the board, or make your pick-up radius larger.

Some other ideas include a link to a site where you can schedule games for parks in your area and leaderboards to track high scores at specific locations. There could also be different game modes, where you compete to spell the first word, longest word, most words, etc.

If you have any thoughts on other features to make Seek 'n Spell more awesome, we'd love to hear them!

Play Seek ’n Spell with us at Golden Gate Park! Thursday at 1pm

As we mentioned in a Boing Boing Video interview (we're in at about 00:39:00) this morning: if you're in the San Francisco area, come join us for a few rounds of Seek 'n Spell tomorrow (Thurs, March 26). We'll be at the same spot we were at last saturday - in the botanical gardens in Golden Gate Park, by the fountain. Take a look at the map.

We have loaner iPhones you can use. If you want to install it on your iPhone 3G, see instructions after the jump.

To get an installable version, send an email with your UDID to support@retronyms.com so we can make a copy of the game that will work on your phone.

In my opinion, the easiest way to get your UDID to us is to download and install Ad Hoc Helper. It will generate an email with your UDID you can send to us. You can also hook up your phone to your computer, and when the phone gets recognized by iTunes, go to the device's summary page. Click on the serial number, and the identifier (UDID) will magically appear.

First Official Scrambble playtest

On january 8th, we were able to head out to a park in Las Vegas, and test out the new game we have in the works. Tentatively called Scrambble, it uses the iPhone's GPS to combine real spaces with virtual objects to create a competitive word game. The object is to collect letter tiles, and create words to get the most points. It's intended to be played with friends in a park or other outdoor space.

Scrambble is the output of the second annual "Retronyms Debacle". This is an event we hope to make a tradition out of where we gather the whole team together and try to bang out a product in a little over a week.