iPhone Culture Takes Couch-Kids Gaming Outdoors

MELBOURNE, Australia - The battle to get kids off the couch and playing outside just reached a truce. The Hidden Park, an ingenious iPhone app developed by an Australian studio, takes the fun of playing computer games outdoors.

“We wanted to create a gaming environment that gets kids off the couch and out into the great outdoors, without compromising their enjoyment of digital entertainment,” says James Kane, director of Bulpadok, the studio behind The Hidden Park.

To achieve this, iPhone wizardry is seamlessly blended with the natural wonder of public gardens. The game takes children on a magical journey, opening up a fantasy world of trolls, fairies and tree genies that children can photograph, play with, and interact with on a level never seen before. The children must follow a GPS map of the park, solve riddles and beat magical creatures at games in order to save it from being over-run by greedy developers. Environmental education plays an important role in The Hidden Park, giving children a creative insight into the importance of preserving the natural beauty of city parklands.

The game was an enormous technical challenge. Bulpadok collaborated with WSP Environmental’s (WSP) Online Solutions team, a leading global consultancy delivering innovative and commercial solutions to environment related business issues. Among its award winning online portfolio, WSP’s iPhone team deliver products for world’s top brands, with top-selling applications featured by Apple on their App Stores.

“The Hidden Park isn’t just a huge step forward in creating a healthy and physically active gaming experience for children, it also breaks the boundaries of conventional iPhone gaming,” says John Cameron from WSP’s Online Solutions team. “We programmed the game to track players movements based on a sophisticated piece of mapping script with LBS (Location Based Services) waypoints to trigger animations and sequences.”

The GPS functionality of the iPhone means the game has no physical limitations on where it could be played. “The beauty of The Hidden Park is that it can be adapted for other parks. We’ve rolled out the game across nine cities around the world, including New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney,” says James Kane. “And we are working closely with WSP to release a park builder, so parents can set up the game in their local park and share it with other parents.”

The game is available on Apple’s App Store. For further information visit: www.thehiddenpark.com/media.

For further information please contact: James Kane, Bulpadok, +1-646-257-4149 Andrew Sweatman, WSP Environmental, +61-(0)-3-9412-5116

Source: WSP Environmental; Bulpadok

James Kane of Bulpadok, +1-646-257-4149; or Andrew Sweatman of WSP Environmental, +61-(0)-3-9412-5116