Wayfinder Live 2017 shows you a different hidden Melbourne

Wayfinder Live 2017 is a  free location-based augmented reality mobile game that will help you discover a hidden city in Melbourne’s laneways and unlock special offers from leading restaurants. It’s launching for Melbourne International Games Week, which is running from 22-29 October.

The game will have you  scanning “urban codes” on the street in order to unlock fragments of animation and sound that document traces of a hidden micronation known as Ludea; Ludea being “space you go to when you are ‘in-game’, in the zone, immersed in play.”

Check out the video below for more of an example of how the game works; featuring Checkpoint’s very own Sav!

Wayfinder Live 2017 was created by Dr Troy Innocent, game designer and Swinburne University Senior Lecturer in Games and Interactivity, and commissioned by the Victorian Government for MIGW. It’s very clearly inspired by other recent successes in mobile augmented reality games such as Pokémon GO and Ingress, but with a very Melbourne twist – because it involves laneways and food, of course.

Dr Innocent says, “Wayfinder Live 2017 playfully embeds itself within Melbourne’s street art and takes you through the city’s laneways, iconic areas and restaurants in a playful way to explore and discover the city of Melbourne.”

“While the screen comes into play at particular times, Wayfinder Live 2017 is designed to get players to look ‘up and out’ and re-imagine Melbourne in a whole new way. As you unlock more markers, you unlock what is essentially a hidden city within Melbourne.”

Each of the 16 codes that you can find scattered around the city unlocks time and location-sensitive offers for some of Melbourne’s top restuaraunts, bars and cafes, a joint venture with the restaurant-finding app Zomato.

You can download the app now on iTunes here or for Android here, or head to the official site for more information.