A change of direction for the popular Foursquare mobile app turns the program into a new game called “World Of Fourcraft”. The closest thing to this in a physical form is the game called “Risk”. The bad news is that it is only for those players in New York City.
New games pop up all the time. From Angry Birds, to Farmville, and now a new one called World of Fourcraft. This turns a check in from Foursquare into a game that can be played by a group of users with a smartphone. It is only for those from the Big Apple at the moment, but it turns the whole town into one big game. The game patterns itself after the old game of Risk. The object of the game is to conquer the town by taking land. Here is hoping the bloods and crips do not get involved too much with the World of Fourcraft !
The game uses GPS ( Global Positioning System ) just like Foursquare does to locate the player. Foursquare does it to give credits to those who visit stores, but World of Fourcraft does it to split the town up into gaming areas. These areas can be “captured” digitally by teams of players. For those who are from the New York City area, you are familiar with the five “boroughs” of the city. For those who are not, New York City is divided up into five districts. They are Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The player of the Fourcraft game must swear allegiance to one borough. Once the teams form up, the game begins. Winning the game is a matter of amassing enough players ( or check ins ) in your district. The Fourcraft game calculates what team wins their borough by tabulating which team checks in the most in their borough.
The code of the game uses a mix of Google APIs and Foursquare information. The city is split up into the existing boroughs by the mobile app. A person will not have to live in the area where their team is trying to win, but it will help. They key to winning is to perform a lot of check ins with Foursquare.
The mobile game was thought up during a hackathon called “New York’s General Assembly”. A group of seven programmers thought it up on the spot. They go to show what a little creativity and programming skill can make. The reason for the creation according to its makers is; “We wanted to make Foursquare more compelling for long-term use.” At the moment, there are only 100 players, but that is expected to grow.
