The Meetup game is a social experiment that we created to promote networking activities during events. Participants open a dedicated website called meetupgame.com and then «work the room» in order to meet as many participants as possible. In the meetings they exchange their secret words to collect points and move up in the leaderboard. The winner of the event is the person that collected most secret words by chatting with as many strangers as possible.
Realisation
MeetupGame is an experiment that we implemented as part of an internal prototype day. After having participated in many networking parties where the mood to talk to strangers was extremely low, we figured out that a little game could help with that.
The concept phase was done with pen and paper and a paper-based prototype. We then implemented a small website that showed secret words and featured a text-entry field.
In a last step, we designed the interface more carefully and upgraded the server to enable the entry of new secret words and a reporting page for the organizer to show a detailed leaderboard.
Quick Facts
- No setup required
- No app install necessary
- Works instantly for gatherings of all sorts
Technology
- HTML5
- Blender, GIMP, Photoshop
- LAMP server
Demo
Get in touch with us to try out a beta version of the MeetupGame on http://meetupgame.com. You can even use it at your next event for free.
Instructions
For organizers:
- Ask your audience to open meetupgame.com on their mobile phones.
- Ask them to «work the room» and meet as many people as possible to collect as many secret words as possible.
- The winner that collected most of the secret words will lead the leaderboard and win a price that you specify in front of the audience.
- You can check the leaderboard state at www.meetupgame.com/report
For participants:
- Open meetupgame.com on your phone
- Meet a person
- Ask her for the secret word
- Enter it in the text box
- Repeat steps 2-4 until you have won the prize
