Welcome to Modojo, 
Modojo Exclusive: The Shroud's GPS Functions Revealed
Written by Justin Davis on Friday, March 10, 2006
Your World Games is finally ready to blow the lid off the GPS functionality of its ambitious mobile RPG The Shroud. We have the full scoop.
One look at Your World Games' mobile RPG The Shroud is all it takes to know that the game is an ambitious project. It looks more like The Legend of Zelda or Harvest Moon than a typical mobile RPG. Yet what truly sets the game apart is something that can't be seen- it has to be experienced firsthand. When it's released this Spring, The Shroud will be the world's first GPS-enabled videogame.
YWG has been tight-lipped about how their debut title would utilize the technology, but the company finally spilled the beans to Modojo earlier this week. The game's online functions come in two major flavors: GPS challenges and the International Farmers League (IFL).
GPS Challenges are initiated by the player moving their physical person into a hotspot, or a "breach." Early on these breaches might be located just a few meters away, but as the game progresses, so does breach distance. It is within these breaches that evil is seeping out into the game world, and the only way to close a breach is to actually go there. Once a player enters, they will then participate in an in-game challenge such as fishing or mining. Challenge completion keeps the world safe from evil (for now), but also adds to a player's high score.
The IFL, while not GPS-enabled, is also designed to keep the competition and the game-world fresh. The Shroud includes a robust farming engine that would feel right at home with Harvest Moon fans. Gamers will clear weeds with a sickle, chop wood . remove rocks and stumps, and grow a large variety of different crops and farm animals. While The Shroud isn't a MMO in the traditional sense, the developers have injected a healthy level of competition into the game's farming.
At any time a player can visit the town requesting an IFL challenge. Upon arrival at the challenge location the player will be required to complete a farming challenge such as plant and sell 10 potatoes in one hour or to have the largest working farm. Successful completion of this challenge will result in the player being awarded points which will then be added to the IFL leader board (viewable at The Shroud website). Upon the close of each month's competition a winner will be crowned and rewarded.
Modojo had the opportunity to interview Your World Games Vice President Robert Sprogis, who for the first time answered questions about The Shroud's online and GPS gameplay.
Modojo: What is the difference between the IFL and GPS gameplay?
Robert Sprogis: We have 2 types of competitive gameplay in The Shroud. First is the International Farmers League which is a set of challenges that any player can access. They will include goals like catching a certain number of a fish in a certain time limit, harvesting an area of land for a specific amount of days, etc. After completing these challenges, players will be ranked on a leaderboard and they can see how they stack up against other players. All players will be able to access this mode. On the other hand, we will have special GPS challenges. Players with GPS compatible phones will be alerted to breaches during their gameplay. A compass will point them in the direction they need to go, and they will have to physically move themselves to these breach spots in order to embark in these GPS challenges. Once completed, new breaches will be revealed, and players will have to continue to move themselves to advance.
Mo: Can you tell me about some of the major landmarks you hope to make breaches?
RS: All the obvious landmarks would make great choices for breaches, anything from the Empire State Building to the Golden Gate Bridge. It would be pretty cool to see a whole bunch of Shroud players standing out in the middle of the Golden Gate competing in a GPS challenge. Something like that would really draw a lot of attention to the game and mobile gaming as a whole. Attention I think that is well deserved and long overdue. Plus we have the ability to add new breaches on a regular basis so making sure we get every single landmark on the first go is not the priority. The priority is making sure the game is fun.
Mo: How many breaches do you estimate you'll have, to ensure everyone is in reach of one?
RS: This is clearly a big concern. We don't want people to have to travel tens of miles just to get to a breach and then spend another hour to get to another one. As such the goal is to have early breach challenges easily accessible so players only have to travel a small distance, a few hundred meters at most, while more difficult and later breach challenges will require greater distances to be traveled. One of the great things about this game is that a GPS challenge for one player is going to be totally different then for another. The game takes into account your skill level and gives you a breach challenge based on that info. For example, two players start off in times square. Player 1 is new to the game and gets a new breach 100 meters north of his position. While player 2 is a seasoned veteran and has to travel 2 miles North of his position. We want to make this GPS challenge fun but it should also correspond to the player's skill level, as such the game evolves with the player.
Mo: How big will they be, area-wise? Like let's say you're in a big city where large areas of land are inaccessible to you... how does The Shroud address this?
RS: The GPS challenge areas will vary in size. As would be expected, some hotspots might be inaccessible due to various conditions but under no circumstances will the player's be required to complete every challenge in the game. Player's can ignore these inaccessible areas and move on to another challenge.
Mo: Is there any thought to creating things like special-event "super breaches?" For example perhaps 1-2 open in every state, and those that can get themselves there get big rewards?
RS: Certainly, we hope to do something even bigger by creating region, country and, quite possibly, even global challenges. Of course the latter has a lot of what-if's and won't happen until The Shroud is mature enough to handle such a challenge scenario, but we think this could spawn a whole new interest in gaming. Think Amazing Race on steroids and centered around a cell phone game. We also would expect to offer some pretty cool prizes with challenges this big, and if there is a demand for big challenges like this we won't hesitate to heed the call and make this happen. I suppose the only limit on what we do with the challenges is how many people play the game. The more players we have using GPS the better the odds of coming up with some pretty exciting challenges. Like I said, think Amazing race on steroids.
Mo: Does this IFL competition and GPS functionality tie into the main quest itself, or is it all optional?
RS: They are optional but they do compliment the player's progress through the awarding of prizes, thereby helping the player in the main quests. In addition, these challenges directly impact the high score list and ultimately a player's high score ranking in relation to the other players.
Mo: How will monthly IFL winners be rewarded?
RS: Beyond the obvious awarding of game points for a high score list, IFL winners will be given either in-game currency to spend as they please on in-game items or real world prizes. Unfortunately we can't go into too much detail about what these real world prizes will be but they could be something as small as a free fast food meal, or a music download to something as large as a free Snowboard or $10,000. Of course the size of the prize depends on the difficulty of the challenges but we hope to award every IFL winner something they will appreciate.
Mo: Will leaderboards be available in-game, or only accessible online?
RS: The Shroud supports familiar internet community based high score systems such as the M7 Game Lobby, etc. These systems work primarily online.
Mo: Can you elaborate on the trading, or player-to-player communication? I know The Shroud isn't an MMO, but I know item trading, etc. is planned
RS: A person registers on The Shroud site (www.shroudgame.com) for an account which we cross reference to an active mobile game account. We will then offer a trading community. Upon entering the trade section, a player is presented with a list of currently available items (only upgraded items are shown as you can't trade basic items) and a list of all (upgraded) in-game items they currently own. The user then selects the item they want to trade and the item they want.
Upon submission by the initiating party fellow gamers may choose to accept the trade in which case the users exchange the selected items. This is an all or nothing exchange, meaning the players must either accept the trade as stated or reject said trade. Upon acceptance items are exchanged and logged in each player's inventory.
Mo: How long does YWG think it could presumably keep The Shroud going? Is the world progressive/changing at all, or are the IFL and GPS score challenges just a way to extend replay value?
RS: Obviously, the true measure of any game is how much fun it is to play, and we have been working really hard to make sure that we give gamers something that they actually want to play. We really want to raise the bar of mobile games - show the industry and gamers that 'real' games can be created for your phone. The fact that we have the opportunity to enhance the game by adding another level of depth and gameplay through the GPS and IFL game modes is great. And, even better, no matter what kind of phone you have (GPS or not) you will be able to take part in challenges and see how you rank against other Shroud players.
