Imagine playing a board game, but your city is the board, and you and your friends are the game pieces.
That’s what we did! We played a special version of hide and seek across Tampere.
There’s a really cool YouTube channel called Jet Lag: The Game. They take classic games like “tag” and “hide and seek” and turn them into epic games played across countries and sometimes even continents.
They’ve played hide and seek a few times in Switzerland and Japan, and from their experiences, they made a version anyone could play in their city or country.
I bought one (well, long story but I had to buy it off a Dutch Counter-Strike pro gamer) and I couldn’t wait to try it in Tampere.
I printed some maps, assembled a few people, and we tried playing. It ended up being very fun, and to this day, I’m still surprised how well the game works.
I wasn’t sure we could actually find anyone, and that it might just be an epic fail. But it turns out, if you ask the right questions, you can find anyone in Tampere in under 2 hours.
Here’s how it works:
A player starts as the hider and they go off anywhere within 500m of a tram station.
After 30 minutes, the other players (the seekers) start trying to find the hider. They can ask any question from the menu, such as:
- We’ve traveled 300 meters, are we closer to you than before?
- Take a photo of any building visible from the tram station
- Are you within a 250 meter radius of me?
Eventually, this narrows down the map enough to find the tram station area they’re hiding in. And when we’re there, the hider is not allowed to move.
Once they are found, another player takes their turn being the hider. In the end, whoever hid for the longest wins.
In game design, of course the game itself should be fun, but even better, the game should create fun moments.
For us, the game created many fun and insane moments.
I taunted the seekers by sending a picture of me enjoying ice cream. Later, they tracked down the store, went in, and asked the staff “there was an Asian guy in here, which way did he go?” (against the rules by the way!)
My hiding zone in Pyynikki was half forest, half residential. The seekers thought I was hiding in a tree somewhere, trekked all the way uphill, and sent me a picture of this weird burrow?
Nope, I was downhill, chillin’ in a park area next to some apartments.
Next, my downfall. They asked me for a photo of the tallest building I could see. I predicted this when I scouted my hiding spot, which was under a tree next to a nondescript apartment. I sent my photo, which I thought would lead them nowhere — this could be anywhere in Pyynikki.
But, these seekers got special training in the Finnish army or something. They identified the direction of the sun from the reflection on the window. The building must be facing west. Then, they saw the building had a white roof.
Apparently, there were only 2 white roofed buildings facing west in my hiding zone. They got me.
Hide and seek is a great game. I can’t wait to play it again next year when it gets warm.
See you outside.