Geocaching, Guides
Guide to Wherigo
What is Wherigo?
Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. It uses GPS technology on selected GPS or selected apps on your smartphone to guide you to physical locations and interact with various objects and characters.
How to Play Wherigo
To play Wherigo, you need a Wherigo-enabled GPS device or compatible smartphone with app.
As you move through a real-world location, you can interact with story elements.
Wherigo Cartridges
A Wherigo cartridge is a downloadable file that contains all the information necessary to play Wherigo. Cartridges can be played wherever you have a GPS signal and may be linked to a single location or “Play Anywhere”.
How to Use Wherigo Cartridges
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use Wherigo cartridges:
- Create a Cartridge: When creating a new cartridge, your first task is to provide a cartridge name and starting location. The starting location can be created with coordinates or a physical address around which your cartridge (adventure) is centered.
- Create Zones, Characters, and Tasks: Zones are the building blocks of a Wherigo experience. A zone is a virtual shape in the real world defined by three or more waypoints. Players interact with zones primarily by entering and exiting the shape in the real world. Events in a cartridge occur based on the player’s location in relation to the zones that you define.
- Add Media: A media object is a sound or image that helps build visual context for the story.
- Dialog and Message Boxes: Dialog strings and message boxes allow the builder to communicate text and image-based information to the player.
- Move Characters and Items: All virtual objects must be moved to a zone in order to be available to the player.
- Change Object’s Status: The state of an object may be set active/inactive or visible/invisible. This can be changed throughout the cartridge.
- Compile and Test: A cartridge must be compiled in order to be playable. The emulator allows you to test the cartridge on your computer and make changes quickly.
