Looking for beta testers for my GPS based game | Hacker News Reader

Looking for beta testers for my GPS based game

cityquizler.com

27 pointsipinak19 comments

I wanted to do a KGB vs. CIA game for mobile. You choose a side, get assigned a code name. Then various assignments come your way requiring you to go to specific GPS locations not too far from you (dead drops) where you get instructions for the next mission.

As you complete these tasks, in time you advance to assassin-level where you are sent to target and "kill" other players of the game. (Just getting within some near GPS distance of them and touching the "trigger" button in the game.)

(I assume each player can geofence an area where they are "unassailable" — home, work? But, otherwise, yeah, someone could be stalking you through a grocery store to make a hit. Victim is sent a notification they are out of the game.)

It's a game though without legs though until you have enough people playing to make the assassin stage possible.

(Yes, based on the popular college game "Assassin" played IRL with rubber dart guns and dossiers on your targets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin_(game))

I can already picture people having to explain to the police they were playing a mobile game, and totally were not up to something more nefarious.

Sounds like a fun idea.

Most people are on their phones most of the time. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if you had to explain why you weren't on your phone.

It's more about stalking strangers, less about using a phone to do it

For someone who likes people watching in general, this feels like taking that to a whole other level and adding purpose, and I'd definitely try this out if available.

Why you say "I wanted to" and not "I'm thinking about doing" so I don't completely lose hope? :)

Yeah, there are a lot of challenges.

I can see players already using fake GPS to bypass the walking requirement, at least same thing happens with others GPS games

If anyone is looking for another geography-based quiz game I would love to hear some feedback for my new game Guesshole. It's super quick to get into, works great in solo or party mode (I think it's best with a group of people on a call) and is free and ad-free (and always will be).

It's still rough around the edges, especially on mobile, but I'd love your feedback on where it should go. I'm adding new features and fixes every day.

https://guesshole.com/

Gave it a quick try, overall works fine, always good to be ad-free :)

Some minor feedback: The design (on desktop monitor) is a bit busy, there is a lot of stuff all over the place, and it's all in a sort of vertical layout which seems mobile optimized to me. And please make the "after round" timeout configurable, 20 seconds is way too long for me to either ponder what went wrong in life, or celebrate my victory. I even put the each round time limit to be 10 seconds, yet the after-round timeout was still 20 long seconds.

Thank you for the feedback! The end of round timeout is definitely too long for solo mode, I will adjust that.

I'd say it's way too long for multiplayer also, although I might just have stressful friends I suppose. Something like 5 seconds would probably be more than enough for us.

In the interest of making AR games safer:

Is there a public database of dangerous intersections somewhere?

It sure would be nice if we had AR games that forbid setting a new focal point in an area with pedestrian or vehicle fatalities. Or unsolved missing persons...

Frankly, is there a intersection that wouldn't be considered dangerous if your attention is preoccupied?

There was a pokemon spot in the second closest park to my house. It was across from a T intersection and a hill that you couldn't mistake for a 4-way. I'd say that's relatively safe.

As would be a spot at the public library. Or a covered bus stop. Anywhere you can sit down or stand not on a corner.

Standing isn't actually very good exercise. Moving is.

And your mapping provider will know the speed limit and number of lanes for each road, so avoiding huge fast roads is easy enough.

Beyond that, available data varies by country. In the UK, there are databases of all car accidents severe enough to get reported to the police. Of course, such databases look a lot like a population density map.

Geeze I didn't even think about that. Good point.

As far as population maps, you might be surprised. Over a long enough horizon yes, but I recall a club I belonged to as a teenager was trying to petition for a light at a particularly dangerous intersection for pedestrians and cyclists. The city flat out told them that until there had been a sufficient number of major auto or other accidents at the corner they wouldn't consider prioritizing that intersection. It was going to stay like that until there was enough antifreeze, oil, or blood spilled there.

So I think the union of accidents + no light may be a good indicator of danger.

Form to apply: https://forms.gle/SwQrBPBWxu23EWgQ8

OP, with only two cities available, you might be better off sharing on a forum specific to those cities. Unless I'm misunderstanding and you need users who can create local games.

Yes it’s only 2 cities now that’s why I’m looking for beta testers. I posted on localized reddit forums but moderators thought it was an advertisement.

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