THE DRAGON TRAIL

1
THE DRAGON TRAIL
REAL-LIFE GAME AT THE BELGRADE FORTRESS
2
(No Transcript)
3

• Kalemegdan - Belgrade Fortress is a No 1 cultural
  heritage site in Serbia.
• It is a huge fortress with park on the high
  river bank on the confluence of Sava and Danube
  rivers.
• Archeological layers of the fortress contain
  remnants from Neolithic, Roman, Byzantine,
  Ottoman, Austrian and Serbian period of history.
• Kalemegdan is a nucleus of Serbian capital
  Belgrade which once occupied only perimeter of
  the fortress and surrounding area.
• It is also a most visited tourist site in
  Belgrade with more than 1.5M foreign visitors
  every year. It is a Belgrades must see,
  situated in the very heart of the city and on the
  most beautiful location.

4

• In May 2010 YenDva3, a group of Belgrade game
  designers, decided to make a real-life
  EDUCATIONAL GAME FOR YOUNG PEOPLE that would take
  place in the Fortress.
• The game was based on the cartoon style adventure
  plot which was appropriate for our target group.

5

• We placed parts of story on the special web site
  and Facebook page preceding the game.
• Each player should visit a website before game in
  order to collect information and traces to start
  the game.
• Facebook app automatically posted games scores on
  players walls.

6
THE Story unfolds
7

• Katarina Ralovic PhD was a Belgrade archeologist
  who spent most of her professional career
  investigating the three thousand year-long
  history of Belgrade fortress.
• Somewhere in old manuscripts she found evidence
  of a mysterious portal connecting parallel worlds
  that exist in space and time.
• She realized that more than 200 wars that took
  place on that high river bank since the dawn of
  the history, which actually had one thing in
  common the pursuit for the key of this
  trans-dimensional portal.

8

• Mrs. Ralovic discovered that the key that opens
  doors to other dimensions is not actually an
  object (as all armies that fought beneath
  Belgrade walls actually believed) but a sequence
  of actions that must be done in exact order
  within precise timing.
• The passage to another world is locked by nine
  locks each containing one riddle.
• In order to pass into another world, the brave
  traveler must solve all riddles and hope to land
  in somewhere far away in the parallel universe.

9

• One gloomy night, in the cold breeze from the
  ancient river, Mrs. Ralovic went on the Fortress
  and solved all nine riddles only to discover that
  what lies on the other side is a medieval world
  hosting a terrible monster a Dragon, master of
  destruction. It was a world of epic fairytales
  about knights and Dragons.
• When she realized that, she placed special
  devices on each lock to seal it so that nothing
  can go from one side to another. However, it
  seems that she didnt manage to finish her
  mission and prevent the Dragon to come into our
  world.
• Nobody knows what happened to Mrs. Ralovic. She
  disappeared that night and no- one has seen her
  again. Not in this world.

10

• She left vague traces of this mystery in her
  notes, found during investigation in her
  apartment.
• It seems that we must hurry to find nine locks
  sealing passage to another dimension and finish
  job she probably died for.
• Its because if we dont seal the locks, HE will
  come into our world
• and destroy it.

11
(No Transcript)
12
Playing the game
13

• Mrs. Ralovic has placed nine devices with
  intention to seal the nine locks hidden somewhere
  on the huge fortress.
• Each device is a Bluetooth device.
• Players were supposed to find and activate them
  by solving tasks and riddles.

14
RULES OF THE GAME

• The Player must purchase a game card on the start
  position.
• After that (s)he must find nine special Bluetooth
  devices hidden in the fortress.
• Once (s)he finds it, the player must touch a
  device (lock) with her/his card to activate it.
• The device will deliver an audio file with
  further instructions to the player. Some of the
  tasks were delivered by Bluetooth and some via
  SMS.
• Time of play is limited on 90 minutes. After
  that
• Starts the end of the world.

15
TASK 1 - INTRODUCTION

• This is intro file delivered to players mobile
  phones on the beginning of the game.

16
RUNNING TO FIND ANOTHER LOCATION
17
ACTIVATING THE SECOND DEVICE
This device sends an SMS with the task
18
TASK 2

• Go to a lower part of the Fortress, close to
  river, and find a table with a text in honor of
  defendants of Belgrade against German occupation
  in First World War.
• Write down 15th , 34th, 49th , 53rd , 59th , 74th
  and 75th letter and send us via SMS a word
  formed by those letters.
• ANSWER
• SLOBODA ( LIBERTY)

19
TASK 3

• Answer correctly and you will receive a SMS
  with the location of next lock. There you will
  receive this task

20
TASK 4

• This task was delivered via SMS.
• Go and find a group of medieval warriors from
  another world hiding somewhere on the outer
  fortress walls. Have a short course of sword
  fight with them and they will tell you location
  of the next lock.
• For this purpose we engaged members of the
  Belgrade LARP society kindly willing to help us
  in the game.

21
(No Transcript)
22
TASK 5
23
AND SO THE GAME GOES ON UNTIL
You win

• You loose

Or
Back to the starting position
24
RESULTS

• This simple and educational game, played via
  Bluetooth and SMS, was so successful that it
• Produced a huge number of media announcements
  (TV, press and online).
• Won a special recognition of City Council as a
  most innovative tourist project in the field of
  promotion of cultural heritage that year in
  Belgrade.
• Was commissioned by public enterprise responsible
  for Belgrade Fortress and played again next
  year.
• Was played by more than 1000 players during only
  one season and almost double number of players
  during both seasons.
• Attracted many families with children, instead of
  only young people, which were the initial primary
  target group.

25

• THANK YOU
• Bogdan Spanjevic
• YenDva3 / ApsArt
• www.yendva3.com
• bspanjevic_at_hotmail.com
• 381 64 844 65 33