Thanks to the Hide & Seek festival in London this Sunday, I played two interesting games using a mobile device.

• http://hideandseek.andisaw.com/
• http://thegogame.co.uk/

Playing And I saw was about simply messaging a 6 digit shortcode to a designated telephone number. So it could be played by old and new phones and didn’t require the mobile Web. However if you did have a “mobile Web enabled phone”, you could look up the status of the game which is as useful as a twitterstream, i.e. very useful. I enjoyed bumping into people around Southbank and exchanging shortcodes with other short-coded players and finding coded nearby objects.

The Go Game makes explicit use of the mobile Web to give challenges to teams and co-ordinate the whole game. It was interesting to hear the game’s organisers give the introductory talks and make special note of problems concerning Blackberry’s browsers. :) Unlike the previous game, you play in a team and you also can do inter-team challenges. It’s a lot of fun and you should try it!

I’ve been waiting a long time for a good game on the mobile. And this weekend I feel like I’ve finally hit that milestone. Not only have I now played a worthwhile and enjoyable game using my mobile, I have confirmed that theory about mobiles being more social and immersive is so very true.