HOW TO PLAY MAGICAL PARK
Australian explorer
FREE TO PLAY IN YOUR COMMUNITY
MAGICAL PARK is a Mixed Reality game, which is a brand new game technology. It is FREE to play, because either a council or a corporate sponsor has paid for MAGICAL PARK to be available in your community.
Mixed Reality is a new way of playing games that requires you to RUN AROUND and move. We have created IMMERSIVE and INTERACTIVE worlds that encourage kids off the couch and into the park. On average kids run between 500m-2km while playing one of our games.
MAGICAL PARK consists of multiple game worlds so kids won't get bored. The more crystals a player collects in Magical Park, the more fun activities are unlocked. In that way kids have a reason to ask their parents to go back to the park for more outdoor playtime.
MOTION GAMES
Our games are motion games. This means that you have to MOVE more than just your fingers to play them. You will need to actually walk or run around. The faster you move in real life, the faster you move through the game!
You need to move to play all our games. Every one of them requires you to get physically close to something before you can complete all the achievements.
OUTSIDE
Our games are designed to be played outside! MAGICAL PARK games are always located in flat open parks, which are ideally about 70x70m big. A sports field is ideal.
So if you want to nominate a park to have MAGICAL PARK set up in, keep those criteria in mind.
The game is geofenced which means that you can only play if you are in an activated park and if the GPS in your mobile device is within 20m accuracy. If your GPS struggles, you are kicked out of the game to keep you safe.
SMARTPHONES & TABLETS
Our Mixed Reality Motion Games are playable on iOS (Apple) and Android smartphones and tablets.
Minimum Operating System requirements:
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iOS: 6.0 and above
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Android: 4.0 ‘ice cream sandwich’ and above
Mixed Reality requires us to use some special hardware components, found in many mobile smartphones and tablets.
These include:
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GPS
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Compass
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Accelerometer
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Gyroscope
However, some components might be missing from some smartphones and tablets. If your device is missing one of these components, you won't be able to download the app and a message will pop up saying your device is not compatible.
We need those sensors to position the player in the game world and unfortunately new technology tends to require newer devices.
If you are not sure if your device has these sensors, here is a way to find out:
You need to know the make and model of your device, i.e. Make Apple iPhone, model 5 (iPhone 5).
Go to http://www.gsmarena.com and search for your device by typing the make and model into the search field in the top right of the website. Once you have found your device on the list and are looking at the specifications page, scroll down and look for the item "Features" written in red on the left side. Under "features" you should see listed: Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Compass. If one of them are missing, your device will unfortunately not be compatible.
Apple iOS devices:
iPods and IPad Mini's which are Wifi only won't work, because they are missing the GPS. iPhone 4 or IPad 2 don't have the performance to display the graphics and will crash unfortunately.
SETTINGS PERMISSIONS
Parents often have the GPS or location services turned off on their child's device. We do need the GPS turned on or the location services activated, in order to locate the player in the park, but also whether the player is actually near a MAGICAL PARK.
If the GPS has only just been turned on, it can take up to 10min for the GPS to get a location fix and identify accurately where the player is. The same applies if the device has been turned off for a long time.
Check under settings that the game has got permission to access your location data:
For iOS go into settings>privacy>location services>MAGICAL PARK and ensure its set to "always".
On android again go into settings> location>Mode> High accuracy
MAGICAL PARK requires to have access to the camera for the game technology to work and also so that the player can take photos in the game world.
INTERNET
Your device will need to be connected to the internet, and you can see how much data you need to download each game. Once downloaded, the game is on your device and you can play it as often as you like until the next App update.
You can connect to the internet using:
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WiFi (if available)
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3G/4G (mobile network)
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or hotspot to another device
WiFi is often not available in park locations, unless provided by your local city council or other organisation. Some telco providers do have WiFi hotspots which you may be able to connect to. Usually this will be sufficient to play our games, although we cannot guarantee that the connection will be stable enough to retrieve the map.
One way to troubleshoot whether it's the internet connection that stops you from playing Magical Park, - try open a website and if it opens, you know you have internet. It could be that you have switched off the permission for Magical Park to use mobile data. Check your mobile data settings and look for the Magical Park icon.
STARTING THE APP
We are constantly trying to improve our user instructions and your feedback whether those instructions are useful and help is vital for us.
When you log into the game, Magical Park is trying to identify the nearest park to you and will either direct you where to go to play or if you are already in a Magical Park, it will get you to choose which game world you want to start with.
We have a 8 base games, which will always be available and we release seasonal games which are only available for a limited time.
Kids can play as many of our games and as often as they like.
Once the player has chosen a game world, the device will need to be calibrated. An animation of the device screen will prompt the player to spin or rotate the device around each of its axis ideally 2 to 3 times. This calibrates the compass of the device. Once the device is happy, a "Play" button will pop up and the game is ready to go.
Follow the instructions on the screen to understand the background story and what your mission is in the game.
If your child is still little and struggles with reading, we find that kids are very motivated to learn how to read if they want to play a game.
If the player is stuck at any stage, click on our sleeping dragon Sprite in the bottom right corner to get some help.
If the player wants to switch to another game world, he or she can click on the littel dragon and onto the home button (house icon) and switch to go to another world.
GAME PLAY
AUGMENTIA
The kitten herding game.
There are 15 kittens to catch.
How do I catch kittens? - Walk up to them until the deice goes "ding" and a message pops up saying "You found a kitten!"
The caught kittens face you and follow you and carry little love hearts above their heads!
The bad fairy is on a timer and will take a kitten away from you, if you are not fast enough catching them all. She's the one in black with thunder and lightning.
Robotica
The robots have lost a few of their parts and need help!
Help the robots and put them back together. Collect the head and then the body by running up to both and tapping them.
PREHISTORIA
The dinosaur game.
The sneaky raptor is stealing dinosaur eggs from a big nest and is taking them back to his cave. You need to collect the dinosaur eggs from teh cave and bring them all back before the raptor can steal another one. Walk up to the egg and tap it when you are close enough. Then run back to the nest where they belong.
Evergreen
Help the keep the park clean and rescue the trees!
Someone has littered in the park and now there are glass bottles and pizza boxes, apple cores and other rubbish all spread all over the park. As a result the magical trees are really sick. Pick up the rubbish and take it to the right tree to be recycled to bring some magic back to the forrest.
ALIEN SCAPE
18 Blinker Aliens are trapped in cages and about to get eaten by the Munching Monster. It's a race against time mixed with a bit of strategy. Try to save them all or only a few or at least 8 which has you win the game. You have to play the game until the end when no more aliens can be rescued!
Ocean Rescue
Your park has been transformed into a coral reef and unfortunately, it has been covered in rubbish and litter.
Collect the rubbish and clean up the coral reef to bring back the fish and animals who used to live there.
Some of the dolphins, turtles, and fish are trapped in fishing nets, rubbish bags, and other litter. Free them before the evil mermaid turns them into jellyfish!
