7scenes created custom mobile trading gameplay for The Island, a project by Waag Society & the John Adams Institute celebrating 400 years of relations between NYC and Amsterdam.
Friday 29 May a pilot was played of the mobile game The Island. Fifty pupils in Amsterdam and fifty pupils in New York played a game about smart (international) trading.
The Island is a game-based adventure in which the players will have to fulfill assignments together to get to the next level. By using mobile technology and an online gaming platform they will participate in a joint hunt for information and stories – online and on the street. The game is made in cooperation with the John Adams Institute.
In 2009, it's 400 years ago that Henry Hudson crossed the ocean to search for a way to sail through North America. He did not find a way through, but did discover a fertile land that was later called Albany and which we nowadays all know as New York. This year will be celebrated on many fronts and with all kinds of festivities. Captain Hudson set sail unceremoniously from Amsterdam with a crew of no more than twenty Dutch- and Englishmen in the decidedly cramped, triple-masted vessel, the Half Moon (Halve Maen in Dutch), on April 4, 1609. More information about Henry Hudson 400 can be found here.
The pilot was very successful. It might be so that on the real date for the game (12 September 2009), mayor Cohen of the City of Amsterdam might come to New York and play the game himself that day. A video report of the pilot in New York can be seen here.