Turn on ye ole Javascript to add ratings in this low-budg app.

Would love to apply "location" to CryptoZoo. cryptozoo.heart.org. Will love hearing your thoughts.

Come Out & Play is a great event and a great way to experience a city or a community or a neighborhood. Ken Eklund gives it two thumbs up!

Catherine's certainly an expert in this field, having run COaP and made a number of interesting games.

Hi Kristi! I'm not sure what you're asking as CryptoZoo already involves location. I think it uses public pedestrian-friendly sidewalks really well, and it also leverages the viral and social web really well. But what about the suburbs, where people don't walk already and aren't as comfortable sharing spaces? What about people who don't spend much time on the internet (believe it or not they do exist - I think I'm related to all of them!)? What about people in hospitals and airports? It's time to replace TVs with portals to locative games!

There are loads of potential players out there that we can't reach until location-based games and services are as integrated and popular as other leisure activites like pop music, spectator sports, and nascar. And that requires a sophisticated, sutainable economy around them that we simply don't have yet. But we are getting closer (my relatives do go geocaching!).

By 2013, all but the very most basic of cellphones will have GPS capabilities (says market research firm ABI Research). With technical hurdles disappearing and design creativity increasing, location-based games and services are playing a key role in the New Urbanism movement to transform suburbs into more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly communities. A movement like this is built from many interconnected parts, and they must move in synch in order to achieve popular widespread adoption.

In order to truly evolve lifestyles, business strategies around location-based games need to keep pace with the technical and design advancements seen in the last few years. Location-based games and services need to extend beyond sponsorships, advertising, and comissions. Models like app sales for standalone games, ticket sales for event-based games, and premium subscriptions for sustained locative experiences are already demonstrating promise, but they're rarely adopted and even more rarely successful. Why?

Making money from a game or service is just the beginning. Building a sustainable business around locative leisure requires thinking holistically about the industry and context. Festivals, awards, venues, platforms, tours, franchising, ephemera, and other ancillery entities are necessary to fill out the growing industry.

To look at CryptoZoo as an example, I would ask the panel what would it take for the game to generate monthly revenue from the people enjoying it to cover the costs of producing and maintaining it as well as to save up money for a sequel, expansion, or other next game. I think organized tours with entry fees, local sponsors, and a prize pool would go a great way in attracting more people and increasing awareness as well as creating a revenue strem. (Of course, maybe you guys already solved the money issue? If so, do tell!)
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(P.S. High five to CryptoZoo, btw, for winning Best Use of Narrative at Come Out & Play 2009. If you haven't run with a cryptid yet, you haven't run!)

Thanks Ken! Thanks Greg! I'm all blushes! :)

Hi all! Just got confirmation of participation from an awesome panelist (pending acceptance to the program of course). Zach Saul from The Retronyms (http://www.retronyms.com/), creators of the hit locative iPhone game Seek 'n Spell. http://www.seeknspell.com/ If you haven't already played it, you should. Need to be convinced and can't take my word for it? How about the word of Kotaku, Gizmodo, JayIsGames, and many more?

Very psyched to have Zach joining us!

Hi Everybody. I just wanted to weigh in and say that I'm super excited to be involved in this (proto-)panel. Locative gaming is an expanding new world; it is amazing what the current breed of mobile devices lets you do. Even though they might have a slower CPU than your notebook, the new devices are much more powerful (in that you carry them with you, and they are packed with sensors)! In Seek 'n Spell, the "video game controller" is the GPS. This wasn't possible until the iPhone and Android devices came along.

In any case, I was really impressed with Come Out and Play. It was a major, multi-day event that took place at several locations across Manhattan (including Times Square), and it was extremely organized and well-run. Catherine will definitely run a great panel! I'm super excited to take part. Everybody be sure to vote thumbs up!