This new app promises to make urban adventures easy. Autotelic Corporation unlocks Cyburban, a platform for the creation, publication and management of adventure races.
Think treasure hunts, puzzles, trivia challenges or the combination of those. “The possibilities are limitless and the applications are endless,” says Autotelic Founder and gamemaster Ari Bancale.
Bancale, who conceptualized the app way back in 2008, is targeting groups organizing product launches, advocacy campaigns, learning programs, team building activities and other similar events.
With the app, logistics, which is the most challenging aspect of organizing events, is simplified. Players receive their challenges on their smartphones. Tracking, timing and scoring are also done by the app, real time.
“We can do races with fewer or no marshalls at all,” addds Bancale.
Games are created in a web-based editor and are published and deployed on mobile devices. It uses dynamically replicated cloud-based servers, allowing organizers to broadcast to thousands of players simultaneously, all while managing and keeping track of the game on the web interface.
Games can be designed to allow multiplayers, with every game session automatically synchronized between all the team members’ devices, allowing them to split up and contribute to each other’s progress individually. These are tracked through real time leaderboards and statistics.
They can also send live announcements and occasional news by updating the module with information, real time. It also lets organizers monitor players who need critical help by homing into activated emergency beacons through the app’s GPS component. The app also allows instant corrections and additions, social media and internet based challenges and more.
Offline modes are also possible for areas with no or limited internet access. Games are then set to solo-designed or single device quests. An after event data synchronization is optional to update game’s statistics online.
Make your own Adventure
The app boasts of amazing customizability, which makes it really effective in delivering messages, engaging people or just making gathering more memorable.
Last year, the outdoor brand Berghaus used the app to take its Berghaus Urban Adventure Games to the digital age. CouchSurfing Manila Summer Scramble and Amazing Mensa Race, both urban adventure races, also had their events app-based.
The Red Whistle also recently partnered with Cyburban for its #SAVESEXY Lifeguards Laboracay Race, which used the app to help its participants spread the word on HIV, end AIDS and #SAVESEXY. It reached 2.1 million impressions on instagram. The Urban Land Institute Philippines also used Cyburban in promoting disaster preparedness through a scavenger hunt with Bonifacio Global City employees.
Cyburban have also unlocked tourism related events like last year’s Geeks On A Beach Cebu tour and Lyceum of the Philippines’ tourism students’ Intramuros Ghost Tour. It also added the game component to events like the Bloggers United 7 with Sunsilk, National Science and Technology Week, The Collaborative Carnival and the recent R.O.X. outdoor festival. Manila Water and LoveYourself also used the app for their team buildings.
Have an Adventure
The company is gearing up for a major launch on June 28 at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City and is encouraging everyone to join. The one-day event will take participants into a one-of-kind outdoor journey. Using Cyburban, participants will scan codes, complete puzzles, and locate challenges inside the park, all designed to battle against indifference towards the environment and our wildlife ecosystem.
For more information, log on to www.cyburban.org.
