Night urban game | Łódź, 2015-2019 (and this is not the end)
Encounter as a city game appeared in our heads thanks to the stories of Michal Grelewski, who showed a keen interest in Russia and its culture. And it was on Russian soil that the popularity of games of this type was born. The game system was created at the beginning of the XXI century by Ivan Maslyukov from Belarus and became very popular in the Russian-speaking part of Europe. Several thousand people regularly play similar games in the territory of the former Soviet Union, and games are played in more than 200 cities. The game arrived in Poland in 2008 and initially took place only in Warsaw. We have already organized one of the first games outside the capital, but it took place not in Łódź, but in Kraków and accompanied the PlayPublik festival. Finally, in 2015, a game of this kind was also organized in Łódź – in May of that year, the #MIDAS game was launched.
But what kind of game is this? This is a type of urban game from the category of demanding games – events take place at night, the game lasts long, the average game even from 3 to 5 hours, due to the large distances, players move around the city in cars in search of codes hidden in abandoned dark places. The game is decorated with various types of riddles and puzzles regarding various locations and the codes hidden in them, and the team that will complete the game in the shortest possible time wins.
Since then, 10 consecutive games have been played in Łódź, which makes an average of 2 games per year. Games of this type require the attention and efforts of not only players, but also developers, who must spend several weeks on field work in order to properly prepare locations and compile the tasks and game’s legend. Encounter games in Łódź are very popular, from 100 to 150 people regularly participate in them. Some teams were so keen on the game that they decided to prepare their games as well. We created a short training for them to work with the system. So far, there have been 3 games in the DIY formula. The Łódź Encounter games are very computerized compared to their Eastern counterparts – the time of the game and its formula are much more accessible to the players, which ultimately leads to their greater satisfaction. And it’s all about the joy of the game and new discoveries.
In 2015 – 2019, the following games were held in Łódź:
Game designers: Vojislav Radojicić, Joanna Ufnalska, Piotr Lipski, Micha Grelewski, Sebastian Stefaniak