At Connecting '07, Hewlett Packard invited conference attendees to come try out a new form of video game that takes the city of San Francisco as its inspiration. The purpose: to show off HP's new line of web-enabled gadgetry: a global-positioning-system, the HP IPAQ gadget that can receive and play video feeds, HP Photosmart's M437 digital camera that also records audio and video in high-definition, and a web-enabled cellphone, the LGVX9800. Curious, I decided to give it a try.

Organiser Clare Conley had emailed instructions earlier in the week to meet over lunch time in the lower lobby of the San Francisco Fairmont. I joined a team of three tech writers. Each team member was given a gadget and a role; the point of the game was to receive, respond to and complete 'missions' that would be beamed to us via cellphone, video feed or text message. The 'mission' could range from finding a clue underneath a remote controlled car stashed in a secret spot on Union Square (shown); meeting a creative challenge; figuring out directions to the next 'mission'; solving an engineering problem; or interpreting a directive to make up a silly dance in broad daylight.

Once we'd figured out a 'mission' and how to respond to it, we had to document our responses with digital photographs, digital video, audio recordings and text. Completing a 'mission' earned the team the right to receive instructions to go on to the next one. And at the end of the 45-minute game session, the responses would be uploaded to a website and judged accordingly for their creativity.

Our first challenge: to come up with a team name and group photograph. After logging our name via the web-enabled cellphone, we received the first 'mission' – to figure out who insures the goods at a cryptically-identified storefront at the cross of Mason and Sutter streets, slightly lower down on Nob Hill. Another team member received a note via cellphone that there were a group of 'robots' loose in the city, and that a woman dressed as Batgirl had been spotted on Mason Street. By flagging her down, we could ask her for a valuable clue as to how to disarm the 'robots'.

Given the other teams were already off and running, we headed out of the Fairmont and ran downtown to start nabbing missions. Batgirl was easy to find, but some of the other missions required a bit more team effort. For one clue, we had to encircle one 'robot,' do an interpretive dance, and videotape the process; another required negotiating with a female 'robot' hidden at the back of a very dark bar. We also had to source the name of a company from an enormous billboard; track down a message pinned to the bottom of a radio-controlled car on Union Square; and document everything in photographs or video.

At the end of the 45-minute session, somewhat weary from all the running about, we headed to a final meeting point off Union Square to upload our videos and photographs and discuss the results. My team had managed to complete all the missions in time, but the judges decreed our creativity quotient was somewhat lacking – perhaps this was because at least two team members were concerned about making it back to the conference in time to catch the 2pm session.

In all, the game was an interesting challenge. Teams had to work closely together off each others' creative energy, and each member was responsible for communicating key pieces of information at different times; if the relevant information didn't get across, the team didn't go anywhere. I enjoyed it – though at times the process of reacting and responding to contradictory information beamed in via gadgetry felt a bit too much like an average working day. I also felt the set-up – with actors playing the role of 'robots' – was quite cumbersome.

Talking it over with one of my team members, a writer for the Bay Area gadget site Gizmodo, we decided the game wouldn't likely take off in a big way until it was possible to play it independently of the group of actors, by downloading missions off a website at any time. Even so, being able to shoot video so easily – and at such high quality – on HP's digital camera made me think the game had potential to be played as part of a multi-player game experience online - teams could upload videos to show their responses to specific challenges.

What's more, the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii - which allows gamers to act out the motions of golf, tennis, and other games in real time - indicates gamers are prepared to get off the couch to get the most from their video-game experiences. And given the enormous market potential of the global gaming industry – US$12.5 billion in revenue from sales of gadgetry and software alone, with that set to grow to $48.9 billion in 2011, according to a report issued recently by PriceWaterHouse Coopers – this real-time gaming concept could eventually spell a considerable market opportunity, both for gadget and gaming designers. Watch this space.