Code Hunting Games: a mixed reality multiplayer treasure hunt through a conversational interface

In this paper, we describe an online multi-player game that challenges players with abstract coding puzzles that are tied to a geographical location. The proposed system transposes the classical scheme of “treasure hunt” games into a mixed-reality game, where players must physically move in order to advance in the game, while at the same time interacting with a chatbot through an online messaging system. The implementation of the online game is described in detail and an overview of different deployments of the system is given, including a large-scale deployment during the European CodeWeek 2017. We discuss details of the proposed system, including lessons learned during the development and operation of the game. We also argue that mobile games like the one proposed can be successfully adopted for many different purposes, from entertainment to education.