50
PUBLIC & OPEN SPACES
MAGICAL
PARK
Turns Australian and NZ
Parks into a digital playground
The young digital generation tends to be
inseparable from their mobile devices and going
to the park to play is seen as boring by most kids.
Councils around Australia are looking for ways to
use technology to draw tech-savvy families back to
urban parks in order to get active.
Parks & Leisure Australia and the New Zealand
Recreation Association have partnered with the NZ
game developer Geo AR Games to use the latest
geospatial Augmented Reality technology to create
some unique outdoor family bonding time.
During the recent Parks Week celebrations from
4th-12th March 2017, 47 Australian councils and 19
NZ councils wanted to try something new to get kids
off the couch and physically active outdoors. Over
24,000 children and families explored a magical
fantasy world in their local park, thanks to an
innovative smartphone app developed by the game
developer Geo AR Games.
Their augmented reality game Magical Park, is a
free mobile app for 6-11-year-olds and the world’s
1st digital playground. The game is positioned in
a selected large, flat park space in the shape of a
virtual circle, which holds the game content kids can
GOVLINK » ISSUE 2 2017
play. It doesn’t require and hardware installation on
site and can be set up within 24 hours remotely from
New Zealand.
Through the camera of a mobile device, kids can
interact with fairies, dragons, kittens, dinosaurs and
aliens. Fulfilling the game’s missions, like finding
dinosaur eggs, has the children run on average
1.45km per game.
Councils pay a subscription fee for the app, which is
geo-located to a specific park. The app will only open
in a designated park area. The families find out about
the app via their Council’s social media efforts, local
news paper or through signs put up in the park by
their Council.
Across Australasia families spent more than 1,200
hours playing Magical Park together outside. The
most active parks in Australia were Heywood Park in
Unley, Adelaide, the Wilson Botanic Garden in the City
of Casey, Melbourne and Westward Park in Clarence
Valley Council.
Nathan Watson, the Communications & Events
Manager from the City of Albany commented
“Pokemon GO really demonstrated how effective