TagDis, a free iPhone game that came out this summer, allows users to garner Banksy-like fame – at least in the virtual graffiti world. The game uses augmented reality and geo-location technology; users can create their own graffiti in real locations and then the game will superimpose all TagDis graffiti creations on real buildings when users view the world through their iPhone camera.
The game won $10,000 for working capital as the “most promising augmented reality product” at the Augmented Reality Events 2010 Conference. The creator of TagDis, e23 Games, is a new start-up company based in San Francisco.
The game’s competition element comes in via other TagDis users’ votes. The graffiti art that earns the most votes in an area makes that TagDis user the King for that spot. Users can also earn points simply by looking at someone else’s graffiti art.
The TagDis Website allows you to view the world leader board. A user’s number of graffiti placements doesn’t necessarily guarantee the highest score – the current leader has 24,380 points, but only 471 placements, compared the runner-up’s 1,791. The game plays on the existing culture of graffiti, gangs and street kings to create a risk-free virtual counterpart for iPhone users.
TagDis sporadically updates its Twitter account with cool new examples of graffiti by app users. Its Facebook page remains sparse with just a few fans so far, and the game has only 115 customer ratings on iTunes. Download the game here.
