The DJEEO Generation

I heard a presentation of a really interesting commercial exer/edugame DJEEO.  While there is little new design-wise, the interesting thing is that it has apparently been already played by thousands of Danish school kids. That’s thousands more than than most GPS games can claim. (Mogi, geocaching, REXplorer… what else is there in this league?)

The secret of DJEEO is KISS: the game is simple enough for teachers to set up, but it still does the trick. The class splits into HQ players and street runners. HQ players guide runners towards certain GPS locations, which provide clues for the teams. Clues are used to solve educational problems, which can be anything from math to grammar or history. And all this is set up with an easy GM tool that reminiscent of GameCreator and ColourMaps (ACM). And they say the kids love it.

Back when I was in school, the only LBG we had was orienteering, which sucked. But in Denmark they seem to be already educating a future generation of location-based gamers.

Photos courtesy of DJEEO — joshuatree.dk.

[Edit: Now linking to the English DJEEO website.]