List of alternate reality games
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

List of alternate reality games

Section Title:
Table Section Text: An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

Name	Year	Developer	Promoting	Story summary	Gameplay summary	Scale	Status

Ong's Hat	1999	Independent	N/A	A predecessor to the traditional ARG, Ong's Hat encompasses a conspiracy theory and urban legend about Princeton professors in the ghost town of Ong's Hat, New Jersey discovering a means of interdimensional travel.	Puzzle solving by online communities.	Very influential.	Complete

Majestic	2001	Anim-X	N/A	Science fiction thriller based on a Majestic 12 shadow government conspiracy theory.	Receiving clues and solving puzzles to unravel the story. Sent messages via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), and via voice phone calls.	Very influential. recognized as the "Best Original Game" at E3 in 2001 and one of the five "Game Innovation Spotlights" at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2002.	Complete

The Beast	2001	Microsoft	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	A murder mystery set in the future featuring artificial intelligences.	Puzzle solving by online communities. Rewards in the form of new websites and videos.	Very influential.	Complete

I Love Bees	2004	42 Entertainment	Halo 2	An AI from the Halo 2 universe is stranded in our world and needs help.	Puzzle solving by online communities. Information released by phone calls to public telephones.	600,000+ players.	Complete

Last Call Poker	2005	42 Entertainment	Gun	A cursed gun, passed down through generations, threatens the granddaughter of its last owner.	Puzzle solving by online communities. Real world missions in cemeteries.	Over 500,000 active participants.	Complete

The Charlotte Mystery	2006	AFI	Five people leave messages to each other about five types of flowers, which led to invitations to private shows by the band AFI.	Clues containing URLs, phone calls, MySpace and Aim profiles, in-person visits to a comic store and a park, a riddle in French, Craiglist listings.	Complete

The Lost Ring	2008	AKQA	McDonald's	Six Olympians from another world came to help us save this one.	Puzzle solving by online communities. Real world missions. A new Olympic sport "The Lost Sport" was introduced.	3,000,000 players from over 150 countries.	Complete

Commander Video	2008	Bit.Trip Beat	A mysterious persona known as Commander Video issued missions to a group of ten "recruits."	Puzzle solving done by online communities. Email correspondence, Twitter, and various Internet interactions are the areas of play.	Complete

Year Zero	2007	42 Entertainment	Year Zero (album)	Set in a dystopian future where the government surveys everyone.	Players solve puzzles, listen to recordings, and watch movie clips to gain more info and find sites.	Complete

Xi	2009	nDreams	PlayStation Home	Set in secret areas in the world of PlayStation Home where users helped to find Jess and the meaning of Xi.	Users solved puzzles, watched video clips, and did objectives in and out of Home to gain more information. Users searched in Home as well as in the real world depending on the puzzle or objective.	Over 5 million visits	Complete

The Davenport Papers	2009	Brigham Young University students	The Book of Jer3miah	A tie-in to the Webby award-nominated webseries The Book of Jer3miah.	Clues were hidden in the webseries itself, related websites, and around the Brigham Young University campus.	Complete.

Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life	2010	Reebok	Centered around Lewis Hamilton, a secret agent in the game, showcasing a new Reebok technology such as RunTone or ZigTech.	Players worked together to solve puzzles and complete tests online, on mobiles and in the real world.	637,000 players from over 154 countries	Complete

Conspiracy For Good	2010	The company P	Various charities	Tim Kring's narrative focused on charity and against the fictional corporation Blackwell Briggs exploiting Africa	Players cooperated online, on mobiles and in the real world. Four big events took place in London during summer 2010.	Gamers on Unfiction, on the game web and in the streets of London during the summer events	Complete

A Map of the Floating City	2011	Thomas Dolby	A Map of the Floating City (album)	Set in a dystopian dieselpunk past, a global cataclysm has left the world's inhabitants suffering from amnesia and struggling to move north to the "Floating City" to escape the rising temperatures.	Players worked cooperatively and competitively as tribes to collect items, make inventions, solve a mystery, and move north. The game was unique in that the inventory was all based on lyrics from Dolby's back-catalog and (at the time) upcoming album of the same name.	Worldwide	Complete

Potato Sack	2011	Valve	Portal 2 and 13 indie games	GLaDOS of Portal is attempting to reboot herself. Clues were hidden in a selection of 13 independent games.	Solving puzzles using clues found in aforementioned games	Complete

Oxenfree	2016	Night School Studio	Oxenfree	Based on the game, the Oxenfree ARG delves into the true ending of the game and the secrets that the teenage characters face.	The community of the game work together to translate Morse Code, keep up with Twitter feeds, travel to locations, and call phone numbers to solve the mystery.	~900 members of the subreddit, though no community headcount has been taken.	Complete

Frog Fractions 2	2014	Twinbeard	Frog Fractions 2	A sequel to the Flash game Frog Fractions funded through Kickstarter, would only be revealed at the conclusion of this ARG, with clues hidden in a number of other games.	Podcasts by the developers, an Obama Shaving Simulator, real life events such as Indiecade and ARG-specific events around Berkley and LA.	Complete

The Black Watchmen	2015	Alice & Smith	N/A	Billed as the first permanent Alternate Reality Game, players join the ranks of The Black Watchmen, a paramilitary group dedicated to protecting the public from dangerous phenomena beyond human understanding: including ritualistic murder, occult secret societies, and the paranormal.	Puzzle solving mainly by individuals, but acts in a similar fashion to community puzzle solving ARGs.	Complete

Afterbirth	2015	Edmund McMillen	The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth	An ARG that began with the release of the Afterbirth DLC for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Upon conclusion, a new playable character called "The Keeper" was implemented.	Puzzle solving by online communities.	Complete

Sombra	2016	Blizzard	Overwatch	Clues and ciphers referencing Sombra, a new playable character, were found in various developer updates and short animations released by Blizzard.	Puzzle solving by online communities.	Complete

Hello Neighbor	2017	tinyBuild, DynamicPixels	Unknown	Clues in the Alpha releases of Hello Neighbor are leading to the announcement of a new release. Incomplete.	Puzzle solving, horror, adventure and general entertainment.	Ongoing

Waking Titan	2017	Hello Games	No Man's Sky	Puzzle solving.	Complete

DEMA	2018	Twenty One Pilots	Trench	The story of a man named Clancy, escaping from an oppressive organization called DEMA.	It included a cryptic series of websites (all hosted by dmaorg.info) with images, letters from the main character, and codes to decipher.	2,000+ Twenty One Pilots fans	Complete

Sentence(s)

Ong's Hat is the first ARG on the list of alternate reality games.

final_sentence: Ong's Hat is the first ARG on the list of alternate reality games.