Lucy - Culture awareness urban multiplayer game

What is LucyZH about?

LucyZH is a project of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, https://www.zhdk.ch). It's been developed for the International Office by Master students & staff of the Game Design Specialization (http://gamedesign.zhdk.ch).

Its aim is to welcome new international students that just arrived to Zurich, Switzerland for their studies. The game shall give an insight into the city and culture of Zurich and Switzerland, and it also encourages interaction and socializing between the new students and staff of the ZHdK.

More about the project you find here:
http://lucy.zhdk.ch/the-game-project/

Runnings & Spin Offs

The game has been running regularly twice a year since the fall of 2015. In addition, a smaller version has been running in the winter of 2015, on the occasion of "Soirée Surprise", a social evening event series by the ZHdK. Also, to lead up to a Swiss conference on symbol research in September 2016, a custom-tailored version is currently being designed.

How to Play?

The game mechanics of LucyZH

First of all, in the bigger picture, teams walk or drive in public transportation around Zurich, visiting as many places as they can in the time span of an afternoon (macro mechanics). Each team is equipped with a simcard-carrying iPad. The players can pick up a virtual card as soon as they are physically close to a certain spot.

Game Experience

LucyZH (Ludic City Zurich) is a mixed-reality urban game for international students. As part of the “Welcome Days” at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), it replaces the traditional sight seeing tour. The aim of this project is not only to provide the new students a sense of local culture in a playful way, but also to engage them in teams and let them experience challenging and cooperative game plays. LucyZH is situated in a research project that addresses the intercultural possibilities and spectrums of games and play.

(Inter-) Cultural

After the first round of gameplay in September 2015, we decided to add a cultural component to emphasize the intercultural impact our game wanted to have. So, we introduced a simple quiz with 20 extra virtual cards. Every 5 minutes the group had a chance to answer a quiz question and receive extra points (or, lose some if the answer was not correct). We even spotted groups interacting with random Swiss people in search for help with their quiz :)

The quiz topics covered aspects of local and national culture and politics, from the voting system to the trash disposal, from specific food knowledge to famous Swiss people.

Team

Project Lead:
Mela Kocher: mela.kocherATzhdk.ch | http://pixelidentities.ch

Development:
Mela Kocher
Philipp Küderli
Örjan Lennström
Diego Martinez

Research:
Mela Kocher
Anna-Lisa Martin-Niedecken: Plunder Planet