This is MobZombies — a project from 2007 when I was a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in the Interactive Media Division. Back in those days, pre iPhone, there was lots of exploration and experimentation in the realm of “location-based gaming”, or more generally location-based experiences (or services as the more commercial opportunists referred to it.)

MobZombies was an early exploration of physical electronic play, blending new electronic contrivances with the ludic character of the traditional play-ground — which in my recollection was not much more than an expansive field perhaps with a few bits of things to clamber on/over/into precariously by today’s safety standards and parenting practices.
This was all pre-iPhone and such and certainly well before we had sensor-packed contrivances of unimaginable computational power (from the perspective of 2007) humming in our hands. We saw into the evolution of gaming and had the fortitude and skills and vision to build it by hook or crook. And it was hook or crook.

MobZombies, a project blending playground-style physical play with digital gaming, is now featured on Processing.org. This is like a step toward games that mix real-world activity with screen-based fun. Inspired in part by people like David Elkind on childhood development and reports on physical fitness, we were wondering about the need for games that encourage both social and physical activity.

I’m sharing this here as I gather old posts an projects from the old Near Future Laboratory blog (which I started in 2005) and move them over to this new site.