Hide words, find words, win prizes

A pervasive game with an actual prize? Surely not! But yes: Hodder and Stoughton are promoting Stephen King’s new novel Under the Dome with a fortnight-long pervasive game where you can actually win real things.

The prizes (an advance copy of the book, a night in a luxury hotel) are all very well, of course, but what about the game? Slightly unusually for a pervasive game intended for promotional purposes, it’s really nicely executed. 300,000 words of the new novel have been divided into fragments; players can sign up to receive a fragment, and hide it wherever they like—online, physically, whatever they feel like.

Meanwhile, seekers are looking for the fragments, guided by clues on a map, working to piece together the book (or a version of it). The physical clues are mostly in London, but there are plenty of hidden fragments online as well, and if you sign up to receive one you can hide it wherever you like.

The game runs until the end of the week, with a live event (warning: facebook link) on Friday.