Download MP3Seekt Quick Guide: The Game Zone
Welcome to the Seekt Quick Guide series. In this episode, we are looking at the game zone — how to define a play area for your scavenger hunt.
A game zone is a boundary you draw on a map that defines where the hunt takes place. It is entirely optional, but it is useful when your event has a defined area — a park, a campus, a neighbourhood, a resort.
To set one up, go to the hunt editor and tap "Game Zone." You will see a map with a crosshair in the centre. Tap "Drop Pin" to place a point, then move the map and drop more pins to outline the boundary. You need at least three points to form a shape. The app draws the polygon as you go so you can see exactly what area you are defining. You can undo the last point or clear all and start over.
Once the game zone is set, it does three things during gameplay.
First, it appears on the map tab for both players and the host, so everyone can see the play area. This is especially helpful for players who are unfamiliar with the location.
Second, if a player submits evidence from outside the zone, the submission is flagged. The host sees these flagged submissions in the review screen and can decide whether to accept or reject them.
Third, players get live alerts. If a player's location moves outside the zone, they see a warning in their news feed telling them they have left the play area. When they come back inside, they get a confirmation that they are back in bounds. This helps keep everyone in the right area without the host having to watch every team's position.
The game zone also appears in the item editor when you are setting location triggers, so you can make sure your trigger locations are inside the boundary.
A practical tip: when drawing your zone, give yourself some buffer around the edges. GPS can drift by ten to twenty metres, so a zone that is too tightly drawn might flag legitimate submissions near the boundary.
That is "the game zone" in Seekt. For more, visit the seekt.ca website.