Urban-internet game | Łódź, Poland, spring 2010
Łódźbój was an exceptional project. All the games that we have designed so far were one-day events lasting up to several hours. This game was supposed to last 2 weeks. It was a serious challenge, especially since in this way we were going to present our new website topografie.pl as a modern regional education tool not only for teachers, but for anyone who wanted to get to know Łódź better. During the game, we went through the entire history of Łódź from the time the city was founded as an agricultural settlement, through the development of its industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – to finally reach the latest events and plans for the future.
The assumption of the game was as follows: on topografie.pl, 5 tasks were posted every day for 2 weeks. Each team of 2 to 5 people had 48 hours to perform each of them, and could choose any number of them. The tasks required teams not only to search for information, but also to “act in the field.” To confirm, the participants sent documentation, the form of which depended on the nature of the task (e.g. photos, film). In addition to the daily tasks within the game there were also two special events – fast street game MINO and live action role-playing movie game (LARP), as well as 5 time-based challenges based on text messages.
For all previously mentioned activities, participants received points to the general ranking. The team that has won the most points in these two weeks has won! And there was a lot to fight for, because the main prize was the flight over the city for the entire winning team.
After the end of the game, our entire team needed to catch up on sleep, because during these two weeks while corresponding with the players we received over 1000 emails.
Partners: Fundacja Orange, Fundacja Fenomen, Uniwersytet Łódzki, Mobile MS
Project management: Michał Grelewski,
Game designers: Maria Frankiewicz, Piotr Czaiński, Izabela Bartnicka (Więckowska),
LARP design: Vojislav Radojičić, Przemysław Bogusławski,
Challenges coordination: Vojislav Radojičić, Iza Więckowska, Maria Czaińska, Piotr Czaiński, Anna Rawicka, Mateusz Idzikowski, Justyna Bożek, Przemysław Bogusławski, Michał Gruda,
Graphic design, animation: Ortografika,
Music: Vojislav Radojičić.
I have this memory from the game: April 2010. All of Poland is in mourning after the presidential plane crash. Together with the scouts I went to Warsaw, where we joined in state ceremonies. I remember today that I prepared some of the tasks in the basement of St. Anna’s Church in Krakowskie Przedmieście, during a break between duties. It was a strange time, but Łódźbój is a game about society, about civic attitude, so it somehow fit into all this (although of course those more booming parts of the game were postponed due to the mourning). (M.Grelewski)
