[HTML2]If you’re like me, you love a good game of hide-and-seek. Or hide-n-seek. And like me, you may also be a big fan of the iPhone. Perhaps even—and this would be the trifecta—you, like me, may have spent a minute or two on Twitter. If so, you may be thinking what I’m thinking. What’s that? Well, I’m always thinking, “If only could I combine my affection for the iPhone and Twitter with the joy of hide-and-seek? If only….”
Well, thanks in part to Portland’s Nate “@xolotl” Angell, some ghost naming from Heather “@twigz” Angell, and illustrations by Brett Forman of a novel design—and of course tons of brilliant coding by John Ellis who doesn’t happen to be in the Silicon Forest… yet—that dream of Twitter and iPhone and hide-and-seek goodness has become a reality.
Get ready to play hideNtweet.
hideNtweet is new game that let’s you bring back the fun of schoolyard hide and seek in the real world, playing with friends or solo with our scary ghosts, using your iPhone’s interactive map to find your way, its camera to tag other players and touch home, and Twitter to communicate with other players.
That’s right. Just like when you were a kid. Base. Tagging. All that stuff. But you get to use your iPhone. Which means that really fast kid who always got away from you? That kid doesn’t stand a chance. Try and outrun the iPhone camera there buddy.
So where does Twitter come into play? Well, you can taunt your opponents through Twitter, send out updates about your progress, or let them know when you’ve reached base. You could also use it call “Ollie ollie oxen free!” which actually has absolutely nothing to do with hideNtweet. I just like saying “Ollie ollie oxen free!”
I got the chance to play this game while it was in beta one day at Beer and Blog. Aside from being entertaining, it’s a really impressive application in terms of the iPhone features it taps. GPS, embedded maps, camera, texting, geotagging. They’re all in play to make the game work.
What’s that? You don’t have any friends who love hide-and-seek, Twitter, and iPhones as much as you. Or you do, but they’re not around? That’s a sad story my friend.
But you can wipe away that tear, little camper. Because you can play hideNtweet by yourself—against ghosts.
Ghosts? Oh yeah. For those of you with no friends one to play with, hideNtweet offers four ghost players—Calaboose, Pleat, Scuffle, and Vetch—who will wander around near home base waiting for you to catch them.
That’s right. Play hide-and-seek by yourself. And—as an added bonus—get the chance to exact all of your Pac-man revenge fantasies on surrogate Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. No power pills needed. And you’ll finally get the chance to show those ne’er do wells who were constantly destroying your cool factor and stealing your hard earned quarters.
Oopie. I might have over shared a bit there. From like 1982. Let’s get back to the app.
I’m consistently impressed by how much is going on with the hideNtweet app—and how much it makes it feel like a good old fashioned game of hide-and-seek, albeit over a much larger geographical region. And I’m also impressed by what I assume to be a great deal of hoop-jumping taking place under the hood of hideNtweet. I mean, you take a photo of home base. It’s geotagged. And then there are ghosts running around nearby—I mean, not that I’m playing alone. I’ve got friends. Maybe.
The app is currently free. You can download hideNtweet from the App Store, follow hideNtweet on Twitter, or you can get more information by visiting hideNtweet.
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Sounds awesome, I want to try it.