Dr Zoogles Bestiary

http://www.txt4treasure.com/

Dr Zoogle's dangerous bestiary escaped into Central London but intrepid treasure hunters tracked down some of the fiercest beasts over the weekend, during the London Games Festival Fringe.

The treasure hunt ran on Saturday and Sunday 27/28th Oct 2007, from 11am. There was no time limit, and everyone who reached the warm and exciting finish received a goody bag. Some teams started hunting on Saturday and came back on Sunday in the rain to finish. Dr Zoogle was impressed.

Winners and runners up have been sent a selection of games, including Sims 2, Fifa 08, Wii Boogie, Burnout, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon.

This event was sponsored by London Games Festival Fringe; developed in conjunction with Gamelab London (http://www.gamelablondon.com/) and Genius Telecom.

Mobile Learning Adventure

Emerald-funded project, therefore strictly hush-hush for copyright/IP reasons.  How annoying was that. 

The most interesting part was a visit to Hayling College, early in March, to talk to a focus group of 11-year-olds and a selection of teachers.  The original concept changed dramatically in scope after chatting to the kids, who were full of excellent ideas for mobile resources they would like to use (no surprise there).

Some staff were hoping for mobile quiz apps to use as revision aids, but there would have been problems with content copyright and data administration.  However, there were other concepts to play with and we built a prototype based on one suggestion.  The PE teacher tested the system for us for the first time in June.

Gunpowder Park

A development for Lee Valley Country Parks, which was part of a range of projects under the banner "Fatband Revelations". This treasure hunt was designed for school groups and park visitors - to entertain, practise team skills, simple orienteering and promote environmental awareness.

Who took part?

Three teams from Ponders End Youth Centre in Enfield. The teenagers had to find out information about the Gunpowder Park site, using a combination of techniques.

Teams started at point X on the map. They had to find code numbers, which they texted to the game server. Then they received a message which comprised a direction + a question or an object to photograph.

They had to text an answer back to the game server and/or take a photo of the specified object. Then they followed directions to the next clue/code.

Rangers from Lee Valley Parks were acting as guides and providing information about wildlife in the area.

The game server kept a note of team scores. Extra points were added at the end when teams showed their photos.

Team kit:

Map of location, mobile phone, compass, polaroid camera, idenitfication sheet, answer grid.

The main aim for the youth group was to provide an activity for members that would be fun and encourage their team-building skills. Players were given feedback forms with their tea and biscuits at the end of the treasure hunt.

The experience made everyone talk to each other a lot, the team aspect was very positive, as were solving clues, being made to think and also taking pictures.   They did not like being outside - the youth centre participants were not warmly enough dressed for the circumstances and their enjoyment (especially the girls) was impaired by the weather.

Technical issues 
Oh yes, the server went down... so we had to replace technology with a human being.  This slowed things down somewhat, as one person was responsible for dealing with multiple text messages and had some thumb problems (only two).

PUBLICATIONS
French, F. (2003)  Revealing what is hidden: an environmental treasure hunt,  presented at ISAGA 2003, Kisarazu, Japan

Animals on the Edge

This treasure hunt was designed as an activity to entertain and promote communication between teams of playerstaking part in Design Challenge 2004, sponsored by DfES and Nesta Futurelab, organised by Gamelab London.

Who took part?
Nine Design Teams from around England. Each team included multimedia developers, teachers and students. The route was around the Thames between Charing Cross and London Bridge.

Kit: Clue map, street map, mobile phone, polaroid camera, answer sheet to fill in.

The map showed where to locate clues along the Thames. Teams texted requests for specific clues when they were in the appropriate location and received SMS responses. They then texted back SMS answers to collect points. They could check their score and the highest score at any time.

They had to collect specific polaroid photographs in zones along the route.  There were five actors on location:  a lion tamer at Trafalgar Square, a fisherman on Festival Pier, an escaped convict at London Bridge, a cook at Monument and a friar at Blackfrars.

There were also broadcast messages during the game, giving extra bonus questions and tasks along the route, and directing players to their final destination.

Players' final destination was warm and dry with catering facilities. They had an opportunity to give feedback and create a poster showing all the photographs they had taken during the game. Teams got extra points for taking pictures of live animals - a brief that was interpreted with imagination...