CONQWEST IS AN OUTDOOR VIDEO GAME, USING A CITY GRID AS ITS PLAYING BOARD

quote from 2009 CA DESiGN ANNUAL:

"To engage hard-to-reach teenagers for Qwest cell phones, we created a seminal Big Urban Game called CONQWEST. The downtown districts of ten western cities from Phoenix to Denver became 'game boards' for rival high school teams of teens. The playing pieces were twenty-foot-high inflatable animals like grizzly bears and mountain lions. The clues were semacodes (a variant of barcodes) that appeared on taxi tops, billboards, flyers, and coffee cups. Players photographed the semacodes with their Qwest cell phones, sent the photos to a Web site which in turn told them how to move their inflatable animals and win points. Conqwest sold a lot of phones and got a lot of free airtime on numerous local newscasts."

PHASE I
WE POSTED THOUSANDS OF QR CODES ALL OVER THE CITY

























[QR CODES WERE ALSO HIDDEN IN 3 FAKE ADS WE CREATED FOR THE GAME]









PHASE II
RECRUITMENT THROUGH WEBSITES, TEXT MESSAGES, AND A RULE BOOK







[CLICK TO READ COPY]




PHASE III
THE ACTUAL GAME: KIDS HAD TO SHOOT QR CODES AND CARRY TOTEMS TO WIN POINTS











GLIMPSE OF THE GAME





CASE STUDY





FEATURED IN ONE