The Origins of City Nostra.
Urban Risk is the first strategy urban online and Location Based Game in Spain It lets the player conquer a whole city or exceed specific missions and challenges in order to win prizes, discounts and economical advantages within pubs, shops, restaurants and other commercial places in town
4. 2. TEAM
Game Designer, Project Leader & Team Manager:
Pau Yànez Vilanova (BA, Pedagogy, Master in ITC for Education). Trainer of Universitat Pompeu Fabra
(Master in Public Health) for Teachers in active methods related to the European space for higher
education from 2005 to 2007. Project Manager in e-learning company from 2007 to 2010 (ITEM
Formación SL): Participation in all phases of the project: training needs analysis, drafting, instructional
design, script writing and training delivery. Designing and Sequencing of Serious Games. Management
and coordination of graphic design and programming departments with 15 people in charge. Project
Manager and instructional designer in ThinX (2010): software development for education platform using
mobile devices with VoIP interaction for learning and communication.
Lead Artist:
Lead Programmer:
3. DESCRIPTION OF THE GAME
a. Background
The videogame is based on the board game “RISK”, which shows a strategical nature. It was
created by Albert Lamorisse in 1950 and commercialized by Parker Brothers Company from
1958. Besides, it is inspired in Location Games in which the game evolves by means of the
position of a player in the real world. Thus, location based games usually needs some kind of
technological support for location, for instance through the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Urban Games are location based games addressed to several players. Players use city streets
and the game is surrounded in an urban setting.
The aim is transferring the board game into reality, so that it allows social interaction
knowledge about a city.
b. Goals of the game and Gameplay
The final goal Urban Risk is to become the great conqueror of the city controlling all the city
territories. The more territories a player conquers, the more amounts of experience points
he/she will get and besides, more difficult challenges can be afforded to players wanting to
reconquer a territory.
Moreover, there are extra missions that let increase the experience points.
The city is divided into different territories. Every one of them has got a capital which is where
each player should interact to conquer it. Capitals of a territory may be any kind of building
provided with a Wi-Fi connection and enrolled in the game1:
1
Pubs
Cafes
See marketing and financial plan.
5. -
Restaurants
Museums
Concert Rooms
Recreation and community centers
Clothe shops, shoe shops and book stores, …
Tube, Bus and Train Stations.
Etc.
How to conquer a territory?
When the player comes to a capital, he/she will receive a text message on his/her Smartphone
obtaining basic background and information about the capital, instructions to conquer it within
the specific task to exceed2.
Once the player has exceeded the task, he/she will have the capital and territory dominion.
This will be reflected in the map automatically after asking the owner of the capital to confirm
the task introducing a personal and untransferable secret code.
The player who conquers a territory must decide, then, which will be the next task so the rest
of the players in the game are able to reconquer his/her territory. This task will be selected
from an already arranged list. The possibilities will depend on:
-
Experience points of the player.
-
Number of territories belonging to the player.
-
The kind of place conquered.
c. Scoring System:
Scoring is specified as the following:
-
-
Attack power: scoring to limit the number of attacks of each player as well as to
guarantee the replayabillity and the reconquest. When the attack power runs out it
must be charged waiting some time. Attack power points can be purchased with real
Money.
-
Special skills: when a mission is completed the player receives special skills to establish
new task to the rest of the players who want to conquer a territory.
-
2
Experience points: you get them once a territory is conquered. They allow increasing
the level in the game. There is a ranking fixed for the players with more experience
points.
Missions: the player gets them once they have reached a specific level of experience
points and a level is exceeded. They also provide new special skills.
See attached document 1
6. -
Extraordinary Missions3: you can get them through real Money. These missions allow
getting more experience points and new skills.
-
Discounts/ tickets/ entries/ invitations to events, minimum charge or drinks inside
that territory: the player can get them once he/she has achieved extraordinary
missions.
d. Learn how to play
To learn the basic duties of the game, Urban Risk states a tutorial which must be carried out
during the participation in the first mission after being registered in the game.
The tutorial allows realizing basic functions and offers the possibility to skip it any time. This
tutorial works this way:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
3
At first, interface is introduced to the user: main menu, scoring and missions.
Then the player will be guided to interact with the main map screen.
Next, the player learns how to interact with the main menu where can conquer a
territory.
Then the player will be guided how to finish a battle and how he/she see it
reflected in the main map screen.
Then the tutorial will explain how the player can buy more attack power, new
extraordinary missions and how to use discounts/ tickets/ entries/ invitations to
events
Finally the player is ready to play alone.
See attached document 2
11. 5. TARGET AUDIENCE
Urban Risk is specially designed for players aged over 16 for many reasons. Firstly, we are
going to analyze the game trends and then the features of use for smartphones in the targeted
audience.
a. Game trends for the targeted audience in smartphones
According to recent surveys, there has been a considerable increase of social strategy games
downloading thanks to the use of wireless connection smartphones. Social game platforms
bring several options to the Iphone such as Xbox Live and opening integration within
Facebook.
b. Trends of use for smartphones and Internet within the targeted audience
The tendency in mobile devices used in Spain is totally increasing. Next we are going to show
the statistics of people who use mobile phones by ages4:
From 16 to 24 = 98,0%
From 25 to 34 = 97,6%
Besides, we can detect a remarkably increase of the people using the mobile phones to access
to the Internet. In 22009, Internet Navigation via mobile phones or smartphones has increased
47% according to a study elaborated by Nielsen Online and Taptap Networks.
On the other hand, it has been detected that in the last year the usage of mobile phones
within a playful purpose and game downloads has raised, achieving the fourth position of top
realized activities by users5:
4
INE. Encuesta sobre Equipamiento y Uso de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación en los hogares 2009.
http://www.ine.es/jaxi/tabla.do?path=/t25/p450/a2009/l0/&file=04001.px&type=pcaxis&L=0
5
Nielsen Online: http://sociedaddelainformacion.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/el-uso-de-internet-desde-el-movil-en-espana-crece-un-30-el-ultimo-
ano/
13. b. App creation for Smartphones with GPS Access and multimedia features
Usage of development characteristics for each kind of device and its OS:
-
iOs4® - iPhone® y iPad®.
-
Android 2.2 - Android devices.
-
Blackberry® 6 OS Widget SDK v1.0 – BlackBerry devices.
-
Symbian 3 – Nokia Devices
14. 7. DESCRIPTION OF DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
a. Schedule
PROJECT PLAN
January
Employee
Task
Project Manager (PM)
Usability Tests with concept & Evaluation
Project Manager
Redefining Concept
Finalized Concept
Project Manager
Scripting
Creative
Sound Development
Creative
Graphic Development
IT
Programming
Playable Prototype
Project Manager
Usability Tests
Creative
Graphic improvement
IT
Debugging
Project Manager
Final Test & Evaluation
Creative
Final Graphic Improvement
IT
Final Debugging
RELEASE
Project Manager
Marketing Placement
Quality Assurance (QA) Quality Assurance
Management
Management
Total Weeks to work
PM
26
Creative
20
IT
20
QA
4
1
2
February
3
4
5
6
7
March
8
9
10
11
April
12
13
14
May
15
16
17
18
June
19
20
21
22
July
23
24
25
26
16. 8. RETURN OF INVESTMENT - ROI (4 YEARS):
Urban Risk has the philosophy of being an endless game which can be played for a lot of years without getting bored. Now we are going to show the
evolution of the return of investment within the first four years:
Year 2
Year 1
Year 3
Year 4
TOTAL
Units
Commercial
business
subscription
App sale
Advertising
Licenses Platform
Sale
TOTAL
Price unit
Subtotal
15
20,00 €
150
10
1
Year 1
Units
Price unit
Subtotal
Units
Price unit
Subtotal
3.600,00 €
35
20,00 €
3,99 €
4,99 €
598,50 €
49,90 €
250
20
1.499,00 €
1.499,00 €
4
8.400,00 €
60
20,00 €
3,99 €
4,99 €
997,50 €
99,80 €
500
40
1.499,00 €
5.996,00 €
4
5.747,40 € Year 2
Units
Price unit
Subtotal
14.400,00 €
78
20,00 €
18.720,00 €
45.120,00 €
3,99 €
4,99 €
1.995,00 €
199,60 €
600
100
3,99 €
4,99 €
2.394,00 €
499,00 €
5.985,00 €
848,30 €
1.499,00 €
5.996,00 €
6
1.499,00 €
8.994,00 €
22.485,00 €
15.493,30 € Year 3
22.590,60 € Year 4
Return Of Investment
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
74.438
74.332,68
43.831,30 €
21.240,70 €
5.747,40 €
Initial
Investment
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
30.607,00 € 74.438,30 €
17. 9. PACKAGING AND ADVERTISING
-
-
Facebook Page: creation of a Facebook page for players and commercial business
subscriptions, as well as to receiving notifications, news and updates.
Google AdWords: advertising
Web Page: Creation of a web page with game description links to the official pages to
download the app for the smartphones.
Viral Marketing: creation of multimedia material during the development process of
the game. This material will be published in the main video portals and social networks
such as: VIMEO, YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, TUENTI, …
Sample of app icon for URBAN RISK:
19. 11. APPENDIXES
a. Attached document 1: Samples of tasks to conquer a territory
-
-
-
-
-
-
Pubs and cafes (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience points of the
previous conqueror):
o Consume soft drinks
o Drink a coffee
o Consume alcohol drinks
o Eat “tapas” or bar snacks
o Find out the year of the premises creation.
o Find out the name of the owner and upload it to the system adding a
comment.
o …
Restaurants (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience points of the
previous conqueror):
o Eat a menu
o Eat a starter
o Eat a main course
o Eat a restaurant speciality
o Drinking specific red/White/rose wine having the meal
o Take a picture with the owner and upload it to the system adding a comment
o …
Museums (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience points of the previous
conqueror):
o Visit a fixed exposition
o Make a comment of a certain work of art.
o Write an opinion about the museum.
o Take a picture with a certain work of art and upload it adding a comment
o …
Concert Rooms (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience points of the
previous conqueror):
o Go to a certain group of music concert
o Consume a random drink
o …
Recreation and community or educational center (one or more tasks mixed according
to the experience points of the previous conqueror):
o Take part into specific activity of the educational centre.
o Find out which are the social projects carried out in the centre.
o …
Clothes’ shop, shoe shop, and book stores, … one or more tasks mixed according to
the experience points of the previous conqueror):
o Purchase a certain product.
o Purchase a product on sale.
o …
20. -
-
Historic monuments (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience points of
the previous conqueror):
o Take a picture of the monument and upload it to the system.
o Take a picture of a specific part of the monument and upload it to the system.
o Write a comment about the document.
o …
Tube, Bus and Train Stations (one or more tasks mixed according to the experience
points of the previous conqueror):
o Buy a ticket to a certain destination.
o Take a picture of a certain train travelling to a certain destination and upload it
to the system adding a comment.
o Do a travel between some certain stations
b. Attached document 2: Types of missions within the game
-
-
Basic missions:
o Conquer the whole city (main mission)
o Conquer 1 territory
o Conquer 2 territories
o Conquer 3 territory
o Conquer “n” territories.
o Conquer 1 territory within 2 days.
o Conquer 2 territories within 2 days.
o Conquer 3 territories within 2 days.
o Conquer 1 territory within 1 day.
o Conquer 2 territories within 1 day.
o Conquer 3 territories within 1 day.
o (…)
o Re-conquer 1 territory.
o Re-conquer 2 territories.
o Re-conquer 3 territories.
o (…)
o Conquer 1 pub within 1 day.
o Conquer 2 pubs within 1 day.
o Conquer 1 restaurant within 1 day.
o (…)
o Conquer 1 museum within 1 day.
o Conquer 2 museums in 1 day.
o (…)
Extraordinary Missions (payment):
o Conquer 2 pubs within 1 day – Get a discount in the pub.
o Conquer 2 restaurants within 1 day – Get a discount in the restaurant.
o Conquer 1 pub and 1 restaurant within 1 day – Get a discount in the
restaurant.
o Conquer 1 pub, 1 restaurant and 1 museum within 1 day – Get a discount in
the museum.
21. o
o
o
Conquer 1 bar, 1 restaurant, 1 museum and 1 shop – Get a discount in the
shop.
Conquer 2 museums within 1 day. Get a discount in the restaurant.
(…)
c. Attached Document 3: 78 territories in Barcelona City
Extension
km²
Nº
District
1
Ciutat
Vella
4,49
111.290
2
Eixample
7,46
262.485
3
SantsMontjuïc
21,35
177.636
6,08
82.588
20,09
140.461
4,19
120.087
11,96
169.920
4
5
6
Les Corts
SarriàSant
Gervasi
Inhabitants
7
Gràcia
HortaGuinard
ó
8
Nou
Barris
8,04
164.981
9
Sant
Andreu
6,56
142.598
10
Sant Martí
10,8
221.029
Density
inhabit/k
m²
Neighborhoods
La Barceloneta, Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la
24.786 Ribera, El Raval, El Gòtic.
Sant Antoni, Sagrada Família, Fort Pienc, Dreta de
l'Eixample, Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample y Nova
35.586 Esquerra de l'Eixample.
Sants, Sants-Badal, Hostafrancs, La Bordeta, Poble
Sec, La Font de la Guatlla, La Marina de Port, La
8.321 Marina del Prat Vermell, Zona Franca*, yMontjuic*.
13.584 La Maternitat i Sant Ramon, Pedralbes y Les Corts
Sarrià, Sant Gervasi-Bonanova, Sant GervasiGalvany, Vallvidrera, Tibidabo i les Planes, les Tres
6.992 Torres y Putget i Farró
Vila de Gràcia, Camp d'en Grassot i Gràcia Nova, La
28.660 Salut, El Coll,Vallcarca i els Penitents.
Baix Guinardó, Guinardó, Can Baró, El Carmel,
la Font d'en Fargues,Horta, La Clota, Montbau, Sant
14.217 Genís dels Agudells, La Teixonera y Vall d'Hebrón.
Can Peguera, Canyelles, Ciutat
Meridiana, Guineueta, Porta, Prosperitat,Roquetes, To
rre Baró, Trinitat Nova, Turó de la
20.520 Peira, Vallbona, Verdum yVilapicina-Torre Llobeta
Sant Andreu de Palomar, La Sagrera, Trinitat
Vella, Baró de Viver, Bon Pastor, Navas, y Congrés i
21.737 els Indians
El Camp de l'Arpa del Clot, la Verneda i la Pau, Sant Martí de
Provençals, Provençals del Poblenou, Poblenou, Besòs i el
Maresme,Diagonal Mar i Front Marítim del Poblenou, Parc i
20.466 Llacuna del Poblenouy Vila Olímpica del Poblenou.