CODE Sample Question 3

Sample Question 3:

Location: Union Square
This "Dirty Boulevard" singer also sang about another New York location in 1973.

CODE Sample Question 2

Sample Question 2:

How many PCs are in the 10th floor lab?

Step 1:
Count

Step 2:
text answer

CODE Sample Question 1

Sample Question 1:

Look at the building room you are in, where else does it add up to?
hint: a city

Step 1:
Number 2
Room 1005

Step 2:
21005

Step 3:
the zipcode represents Aberdeen in Maryland.

Step 4:
Text: aberdeen

How questions are Scored

final score is number of questions correct divided by time the player took to answer them.

How questions work

Scan question

Solve question - every question involves part of the 4 major elements, observation, interpretation, research and common sense.

Text answer back

Every wrong answer will delay your next clue for 30 seconds

If you give the wrong answer 2 times to the same question, you will have option to continue trying question or to skip question and go on with game

Steps to play game

1. Cellphone distributed to players
2. 10 teams/phones
3. 10 questions
4. each team/person/phone receives a card with a code of starting question. or each team texts server phone to start game.
5. scan question (in this senario questions will be text, not url) on code or receive texted question.
6. answer question
7. text answer back ( questions are either multiple choice, a series of true or false questions or return a number value)
8. if answer is correct, send next question location and clue.
9. find location/code, repeat 6-8

Some questions that can be used in the GAME TESTING

1 counting the number of PCs in the lab
2 find the book in ???? room and count the pages of the last chapter. (or what the book about : multiple choice)
3 put the CD in ???? room computer and figure out the free space
4 find an ipod, listen to the song ???????? and send the lyrics (multiple choice)
5 watch a video, and find out the time someone shows up (multiple choice / number)
6 find the picture and count something
7 open the box in room ???? and send back what you find(multiple choice)
8 find the label on the blackboard in ???? room and do the math question
9 call ???-???-???? (service phone) and got the instruction (multiple choice)
10 work out a maze and find the picture formed by the path.
11 go and ask Sven something to get the answer

QR codes explained.

Encrypted City uses a type of 2d barcode (also called a matrix code) called QR codes. QR technology was initially developed by Toyota subsidary Denso Wave and released in 1994 for tracking parts in auto manufacturing. It was designed for high-speed scanning and recognition, hence the initials "QR": Quick Response. Unlike regular barcodes you see everyday, matrix codes like QR scan for data both vertically and horizontally. This enables them to hold more information in less space.

The QR code format (or "symbology" in barcode jargon) can encode several different types of data, including plain text, URLs, email, phonje numbers, and SMS. This makes it ideal for use in an interactive game. QR codes are very popular in Japan, where they appear in many youth and style magazines.

A sample code, giving the URL to a really excellent webcomic:








Outside of industrial applications, QR codes are generally scanned using mobile phones. To be able to scan a QR code, the phone must have a camera of sufficient resolution and the ability to run reader software. There are many supported models these days, but this support is far from complete. Additionally, in our own testing we've found that the device we used was able to read some codes, but not others. This mainly happened with small codes found in Japanese magazines that may have required a higher-resolution camera.

Mission Statement

Encrypted City is a game that combines history, technology and geography. In the tradition of urban scavenger hunts and puzzles such as the MIT Mystery Hunt, Encrypted city scatters clues across the field of play, in the for on 2d barcodes that can be read with camera-equipped mobile devices. The barcodes provide instructions, further clues or collectible game tokens to aid the player's advancement towards the puzzle's solution.

Current implementations of this game include an indoors implementation at Parsons the New School for Design in New York, and another larger staging across lower Manhattan.