Ultimate Agent- Are you ready to play?

The secret’s out! Keri Sparkes our Company Manager has been moonlighting… Since 2017, Keri has been developing Ultimate Agent, a game that follows the principles of online gaming in real time, bringing communities together for an adrenaline fuelled mission.

We had to ask her a few questions about why she’s been cackling like a super villain and what’s with the white cat?

Keri, Can you explain Ultimate Agent to someone who might receive an invitation to play?

K- If you receive an invitation to the game, it means you have been recruited as a secret agent.  So, in order to be successful as an agent, you are given a series of tasks and targets via your phone on a daily basis for the duration of the game.  What you need to do is carry the water pistol provided with you at all times.

What is different about Ultimate Agent, is that it is played alongside your everyday life, from anything from 6 to 20 days depending on the number of participants.  So, you carry on with your everyday routine but with this game underlying everything you do. You may choose to break off from your normal everyday routine or the game might just come and find you.

How has the game been received by the participants that have already played it?

K- The people that have already played the game were all surprised at their own level of commitment,what they were willing to do in order to play the game successfully and the depth that they got involved. They all talked about how much fun it was and how much excitement it brought to their everyday routine; leaving the house, leaving work, shopping at Morrison’s- the game came to them and layered excitement over all those mundane tasks.  They all laughed a lot. 

As the mastermind behind the game, what are you hoping to achieve?

K- It’s my hope that when agents finish the game, that they have really stepped out of their comfort zone and created some really positive, unusual, exciting moments and memories in places that they go to on regular basis.  That potentially they created some new communities or connections and what would be really nice I guess is that those patterns of mundane behaviour are broken, by confidently stepping out of routines that we might not otherwise question.

Creative England have supported the development of the game by funding a demonstration app, the promotional film and a website. The relationship is on going, enabling Keri to showcase Ultimate Agent at events and helping her to broker relationships with new partners so that the game can continue to develop and be played by all sorts of communities.