Get more information in our post about Guesstimate.

Knowing about your distance to predefined locations around you allows you to compute your current position. Of course, this task gets more difficult by measurement errors. Guesstimate illustrates the impact of such errors by handing the job of delivering reliable distance measurements over to you: How far is it from your current position to e.g. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey or Tower Bridge? From your guesses, Guesstimate derives a geocoordinate where you would be, if your estimations were correct. Before the next round starts, you have to move to that place as a penalty – the better you guess, the less you walk…

Give it a try (just download the file on your Android device and tap once to install):

http://www.geogames-team.org/files/Guesstimate.apk

Got noone staging a game for you? Design your own gameboard with only a few taps on your mobile:

http://www.geogames-team.org/guesstimate/editor/

Thanks again to ESRI for making this possible.

Have a look at the demo video:

Interested? Drop us a line: geogames[at]uni-bamberg.de

At the Unconference Session on October 22nd, 1:30-4:30pm, the Geogames team presents lessons learned from designing location-based games since 2004. The Neocartographer game, a prototype which was developed within an ongoing cooperation with ESRI, is used as a running example to illustrate design challenges and possible solutions. Part of the session takes the attendants outside to compete in a real playing event! Further details about the Geogames session will be announced on-site.

Olga Yanenko, member of the Geogames team, is present at the ESRI EMEAUC from Monday 21st until Friday 25th. If you need more information or are interested in participating in the Geogames event or just want to chat about gamification and GIS, please write an email to and we will get back to you.

Christoph Schlieder: Learning to Understand Geodesigns by Playing Geogames

Abstract. The Playful Approaches to Geodesign Project (PlayGeo) at the University of Bamberg, Germany, applies concepts and technologies from location-based games to education in a general curriculum on spatial thinking. A collection of Geogames is created in which the players explore outdoor environments using GPS smartphones to access information, to complete documentation tasks, and to analyze spatial problems. The project uses ArcGIS for Android technology to build a game platform which assists educators to stage a Geogame in their local geographic environment. We present first lessons learned from the project and describe two scenarios for playful approaches to the early stages of the design process, that is, to understand an existing urban design (design reading games) as well as to discuss and evaluate a design (urban usability games). Based on an empirical study of a design reading game, we identify success factors for the playful approach to Geodesign.

One or more playing events will also be organized for interested people. This time the CityPoker game was chosen for demonstration. In CityPoker two players or teams start with a given poker hand and try to improve it by moving around in an outdoor environment to find cards hidden in caches.

If you need more information or are interested in participating in the Geogames event or just want to chat about gamification and GIS, please write an email to and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Several test runs of the new Neocartographer game developed at the University of Bamberg will be performed on-site. We would appreciate to find some volunteers that are interested in playing this game.

Are you interested in participating in the Neocartographer test game at the ESRI DevSummit or just want to chat about location-based games? Please send a short message to and we will keep you informed.

Christoph Schlieder & Olga Yanenko:
Location-based Games in Education and Tourism

Abstract. Location-based games introduce an element that is missing in interactive console games, namely locomotion in outdoor environments such as an urban neighborhood or a natural park. These games are particularly interesting for educational projects with school children because they not only connect the players socially but also connect them with the geographic environment. Most location-based games use GPS as positioning technology and let the players communicate with mobile handheld devices such as smartphones. The talk concentrates on this type of games, especially on game designs that combine strategic reasoning with sportive types of locomotion. Research issues are illustrated with case studies from educational and touristic applications. The game relocation problem is presented as a major challenge. It arises from the fact that a location-based game design exploits specific features of the geographic environment. Relocating the game to a different environment therefore involves more or less complex spatial analysis, for instance, of pedestrian paths between points of interest.

Visit the USC homepage for more details. The talk is also available online.