A game that is always with you, and evolves with you (a game that is connected to what you use, data scrapping your life patterns)

So long as your species survives… (every now and then a catastrophe rocks the world and species become extinct :-)
Needs/Goals

Get a younger audience (15-25) to reconnect with science, namely evolution, primarily through an emotional/social layer.

Provide this younger audience with the tools to understand and discuss evolution thus catalyzing scientific and media literacy.
Approach: We devised a game called The Way of Life

The end is survival. You may be one of the species that evolves all the way to now. This is put within a celebrity framework.

The journey is about socializing, adding a fun layer to ones interpersonal relationships, be those digitally mediated (SNS) or physical (Mobile).

In order to connect to a younger audience we devised a game, but it wasn’t as easy as putting cute creatures in a planet (hey, I like spore…). We had to get lots of scientists together and get them to agree on what is important to transmit in evolution… and then make sure the game followed the prienciples seamlessly

Evolution is not design.
Evolution is relentless, it cannot not happen.
Fitness is about the ability to survive long enough to be able to reproduce successfully.
There is variation in EVERY trait – and some variations will overtake others
Organisms produce lots of offspring but that not all survive to reproduce.
Evolution is genetic change through time.
We are not the pinnacle, we share a common ancestor with all animals and we are all still evolving.

How do you play The Way of Life?

In order to play all you need to do is go to the Way of Life portal, sign up and choose a creatures/species to follow. This is your default creature. You can access it via a widget, your mobile or the WOL portal. It always be with you.

As a user, you will be able to browse, track, collect, and experiment with every other species, but mating will only be possible through your default creature/species. This is why it’s important you get your friends to be the same species as you. :-)

If your default species or creature becomes extinct you can then choose to follow a creature from another species. Remember all that counts is survival over time.

The species you have chosen (default creature) will evolve and probably migrate. You will follow it together with your chosen species into new areas of the game environment always keeping an eye on its fitness levels. Remember to mate with the fittest.

Players will track the many creatures they find interesting. This way you can keep an eye on your friends.

Player will collect different species. An album of cute, crazy and extraordinary creatures is a wonderful thing to have.

Players are given toolkits to experiment on the various creatures and can also use barcodes and their mobiles to interact with their creatures.
WOL architecture

There is a centralised WOL server where all creatures and species reside, and then there are multiple touch points. Think of them as access points to the wol world and your species. Some touch points allow for a nice browsing experience (desktop PC), others for improved sociability (mobile).

I devised an architecture where users are able to play using existing social networking sites. The idea is to leverage existing tribes. All they need to do install a widget and you can start mating with your friends’ creatures…