This is what the game would be like, if two friends found it in the park. The final box would be farther away, and there many more boxes inbetween, but you can get the general idea.

We had an interesting brainstorming process this studio. We first went out to a grassy area at MIT to plan out what makes a game good. We were assigned the topic of what makes a video game good to us. Naturally, our entire group being comprised of Minecrafters, we started listing most of the qualities of Minecraft that made it good. Then, upon getting back, we were told to freeform design a game, and storyboard it. We designed a game where you had to find various components, and put them together in a certain pattern to win. We were then told to give our storyboard to another other group, without telling them what the point was. We received theirs as well. Their drawing was of a game where you ran around between train stations, where something told you where to go from each place, to an eventual goal. We didn’t like the idea, because it didn’t have enough complexity or tech. Our idea was that you had a pattern given to you by a box, with a second box nearby. Then, if you knocked that pattern on the second box, it would open, telling you the next location. This we didn’t like, because you could simply begin anywhere. So we redesigned. The first box would be the only one that gave you a pattern for free. It would have the next location… but you would need to knock out the correct pattern before you got the next box’s pattern. We still wanted more, so we designed something for the last box – a servo arm that would explode it when you knocked the correct pattern. Then, the prize for the lucky winner could be inside.

Our project is a scavenger hunt, where you have to follow a trail of boxes. Each box has its own pattern, which you get from the previous box. If you put the last pattern into the last box, you win.

There would be many boxes throughout the city, telling you the location of the next one. Near the first box, you would get the pattern for that box. Upon knocking it on the first box, you would get the pattern for the second box, and have to go there.

Normally, the city is sort of a means to an end. You walk through it, getting to your destination… but you never take time to actually learn the city. These boxes might help you go through the city, learning your way around, rather than just learning the places public transport comes out on.

We hope to add a bit of an air of challenge to the city. It might be cool learning what different places have beyond the superficial. We might put the boxes somewhere cooler than just a corner in a park, but perhaps at a statue of something or someone important in history.