Thomas Dolby Launches The Floating City Transmedia Game

Jul 9, 2011
Jo Romero

Screenshot of The Floating City Game - Press photo

Find relics, trade with other players and unravel the mystery of a crash through time. You can do all this and more - with Thomas Dolby's The Floating City.

Thomas Dolby's groundbreaking online transmedia game The Floating City is now live. Players form tribes, trade objects with one another and earn music downloads and other merchandise as reward. Here is more about it.

Thomas Dolby's The Floating City - Outline of the Game

The Floating City is based on what the game's trailer describes as a "crash through time". Survivors emerge in a barren landscape, looking for relics amongst the rubble that will help explain what they are doing there. Players (survivors) form their own tribes, where they can trade with others, move around the game's fictional Google map and search for clues. Players of the game are also encouraged to post messages on the game forum and construct inventions from the relics they find. A newspaper, or 'Gazette', warns players of threats and also spreads news of new opportunities to be found throughout the game. Tribes even have their own private forums available to them, to be able to share ideas on the game's strategy.

As players work their way through the game, they receive rewards such as music downloads, t-shirts and the winning tribe will receive an invitation to a private concert where Thomas Dolby and his band will perform his new album in full.

The Floating City is Free to Play and is Available in a Variety of Formats

The game is completely free to play, and can be played on the iPad, in a web browser and on smartphones without the need to install any additional software. On his blog, Thomas Dolby calls the game "a huge undertaking", and describes it as "a vision come to life".

The game is released to coincide with the release of Thomas Dolby's new album, A Map of the Floating City, which will be released when the game concludes. Games that bring people together online can be hugely popular and this game is no exception. Even those that don't want to play the game can sign up for The Gazette to keep track of the game and still become involved.

The Floating City internet game is popular, engaging and mysterious - and a great way to set the stage for Thomas Dolby's forthcoming album. It is free to play, appeals to many people of different ages and brings together music and gaming in an interesting and unique way.

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