Escape rooms, the ‘real-world’ puzzles that challenge teams to solve a mystery and gain their freedom from a locked room, are all the rage. But with the addition of augmented reality, physical escape rooms already seem outdated.
There is now an augmented reality app available (The Lockdown) that takes players 10 years into the future, where cryptocurrency has become the standard means of payment. However, a hacker has devalued it. From the perspective of a cyber forensic analyst, players must examine clues, such as videos and pieces of information, to track down the hacker's location.
The game is played in a virtual workspace reminiscent of the movie Minority Report.
Good to know: this game was actually launched to attract IT professionals to a European bank! “The demand for digital talent has increased enormously in recent years: we have invested to be relevant as a bank to this target group,” says the spokesperson for the bank behind the mobile game. “This requires a distinctive approach: innovation is of the utmost importance to us; IT specialists face fundamental challenges and have a major social impact—these are all elements that are also present in The Lockdown.”
Developing a mobile game as a solution to a practical business problem seems like a surprisingly unique approach for a bank, but it is not necessarily a new approach.
The concept of gamification has gained popularity in recent years as a way to educate or engage the audience and achieve business objectives. Augmented Reality offers enormous opportunities for this!