Magical Park Turns NZ into a Digital Playground

Magical Park Turns NZ And Australian Parks into a Digital Playground

Over 24,000 children and families explored a magical fantasy world in their local park, thanks to an innovative smartphone app developed for New Zealand and Australia Parks Week earlier this month.

The New Zealand Recreation Association and Parks and Leisure Australia supported by Geo AR Games (the developers of Magical Park) teamed up to help organise Parks Week from 4th - 12th March 2017, which aimed to promote the many benefits of parks and open spaces here and across the Tasman.

Magical Park is the world's first digital playground app using augmented reality. Similar to the global phenomenon Pokemon Go, the Magical Park app mixes real life with gaming, a formula that is proving to get kids off the couch. Once outside, the magic of outdoor activity takes hold, and kids end up playing together, using their imagination.

Magical Park attracted over 24,000 park visitors during Parks Week, with an average of 1069 number of game sessions played per day. Across Australasia, families spent more than 1,200 hours playing Magical Park together outside. The most active park in NZ was Merrilands Domain in New Plymouth, and in Adelaide, Australia, Heywood Park in Unley took the lead.

“The numbers tell a strong story that Magical Park has a positive effect on kids. Not only does it get them out of the house, but our data analysis shows children are running up to two kilometers per 60 minutes of use,” says co-founder Melanie Langlotz.

New Plymouth District Councils Recreation and Cultural Manager Teresa Turner added, “I think what really appealed was that families could do this together – parents and kids both could hunt for dinosaurs and fairies and swap stories about their experiences after.”

The app's success has been helped by the willingness of Councils in New Zealand to get behind it. Councils pay for the app, which is geo-located to a specific park. The app will only open in a designated park area. The families find out about the app via the council or through signs put up in the park by their Council.

“We work very closely with councils to ensure high health and safety standards and a community friendly game,” says Amie Wolken one of the founders of Geo AR Games who developed the app. "It is a mutually beneficial relationship. The Councils provide the parks and we provide the impetus for families to use it."

Melanie Langlotz. came up with the idea when her stepdaughter Ella was seven and would not go outside due to being hooked on devices. “I didn't want to have a continuous fight with her every weekend she stayed with us, so I came up with the idea to create fairy games outside in the park, so she would want to go. It took a while for Amie and I to get the technology right, but it did not take long to realise we had a hit on our hands.”

During Parks Week 19 NZ councils and 47 Australian councils used Magical Park. There are eleven parks across New Zealand where you can permanently access the game. For a full list go to www.magicalpark.net

Geo AR Games is leading the charge in Geospatial Augmented Reality. Magical Park is the second augmented reality app from the company who also developed Sharks in the Park, which brought an underwater world to kids in parks across New Zealand in 2016.

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