Wolves is an entirely new way to people in the natural world. It is two hours of ridiculous fun and ecological exploration – a unique mixture of nature walk, tag and treasure hunt for players eight years old and up. Imagining a future where wolves are once again part of the ecology, the game connects people to lost ecologies and brings to life a rewilded future.
The experience includes game briefings from real life wolf and ecology experts, missions to undertake with the aid of our mobile app, and prizes to be won for confirmed wildlife sightings, including members of a wolf pack. We think it would make a great addition to your event or site programme.
The Game
Wolves is a mix of game and nature walk using digital tracking to engage participants in your local landscape in a playful and sensitive way.
The object of the game is to photograph or film the local wolf pack (runners dressed as wolves), and some of the other species that make up the local ecosystem such as a buzzard or a wych elm. The players have an hour to do this. Confirmed sightings are rewarded with the relevant game card. The challenge is to collect the set of species that make up the trophic pyramid.
To help the players a wolf biologist and ecologist provide a briefing on the local ecology and the rules of the game, including how to track wolves safely and with minimum intrusion. They introduce the players to the game app, and how to use it to track the wolves, take photographs and submit them to the game. At the end of the game our resident experts confirm (or reject) sightings, and award game cards for confirmed sightings.
Creating Impact for Your Site or Event
The game combines biology, game and theatre to engage your visitors in a compelling hybrid of imaginary world and the natural history of your site. It is a story about rewilding, but one that is firmly based in the world we find ourselves in. The game briefing from our experts is delivered with humour but using science to explain the game world, with the performers treated as if they are real wolves. Players are given solid wildlife tracking and identification skills, and encouraged to get off the beaten track and explore your site in a playfully sensitive manner.
The game has a dedicated website and players are encouraged to use this to learn more about the local site, it’s ecology and how to track wolves prior to game day. It is also where the players’ game submissions are published creating an online gallery. In this way, the game promotes the event and your site to an audience beyond the players participating in the game. As part of the submissions process, players are invited to share their photographs and videos on social media, and this drives further impact.
A survey of players of the game at Lakes Alive 2019 in the Lake District National Park gave the game a net promoter score of 9.8
‘I thought the experience was absolutely amazing. I loved the back story and no-one acted as though it was fictional. It really gave the feeling as though we were really tracking wolves which my children and I found exciting.‘
Sarah, player 2019.
Delivering for You
The production team is highly self-reliant and the game itself is almost fully autonomous. We can provide an end to end production, from marketing the event, to taking bookings, recruiting volunteers and staging the game. Our only requirements from you are a suitable area for the game and some support with local ecology and natural history.
We recruit volunteer local hill and trail runners to play the wolf pack. In fact, these often become the greatest advocates for the game and your site. These volunteers are given an outstanding day’s training prior to the event, and are fully supported throughout the game with food and accomodation, where required. The pack moves through the game space, their ‘pack territory’, visiting key features such as the den, or a kill, exhibiting classic wolf behaviour. The tracking devices they carry report their position to the game platform every 90 seconds, and this is plotted to the map in the game app.
The game can accommodate up to 40 players, with three games a day. Each lasts two hours. The game is suitable for players aged 8 years and up, with families playing together being the largest component of the audience.
Commissioning Costs
The game costs £4000 for a single day of up to three games. Additional, consecutive days are £2000 each
Revenue
There is an opportunity to charge for admission to the game. The game platform supports ticketing transactions and any revenue can be used to offset commissioning costs.