Klikaklu Discussions
By popular demand, we've added , a place where you can find How-To's, trade tips on hunt creation, and get your hunt questions answered. We'll be moving all future announcements over there as well.
Come join the community!
By popular demand, we've added , a place where you can find How-To's, trade tips on hunt creation, and get your hunt questions answered. We'll be moving all future announcements over there as well.
Come join the community!
I recently wrote up the following response to a question about how best to characterize Klikaklu. Since this isn't available anywhere else on our site, and Klikaklu is a versatile app, it's worth including here.
Klikaklu is about getting others to physically follow a trail you've created, to share details about a location they might otherwise miss, to navigate them to particular spots, and to reveal hidden secrets in a fun, creative way. For players, it's about the thrill of the hunt. There are several scenarios it works well for:
You can send a group of people on a hunt. This is great for classroom learning, field trips, parties, team building, orientations, church picnics, that sort of thing. I recently hosted an extended family road rally this way that was a lot of fun, and we're seeing particularly strong interest from educators for using it as a learning tool.
In this case, players are typically grouped into teams, with each team having a device. Since groups tend to start at the same time, you would typically set the type of hunt to scavenger hunt (where players can find the clues in random order, and all are revealed from the start), or a staggered treasure hunt (where the first clue shown for each team is different, but they still follow a single order).
You can give your players the hunt by a) making the hunt public, in which case they can go to the Play a Hunt->Find Nearby screen; by emailing/texting them all a link; or by printing a poster (it will contain a QR code that may be scanned from the Play a Hunt->Scan a Poster screen).
Click here to see what your poster will look like (there's also a black and white version, and you can create your own with the QR code).
You share your hunt by tapping the Share button on the Hunt Overview screen once you've saved it.
You can send a single friend on a hunt. This makes for an interesting way to present a significant gift, communicate in a funny way, rendezvous at a romantic spot, or lead someone to a surprise party. My wife did this for me on Father's Day - she sent me with our boys on a bike ride hunt that led us to meet her at a nice restaurant.
When working with a single individual like this, it's best to send them a link to the hunt via text or email, which they'll be able to open from their phone to take them on their way. You do this by tapping the Share button from the Hunt Overview screen once you've created the hunt.
This is great for a parent to play with their child (I actually wrote Klikaklu originally to get my boys out on hikes with me). Example usages would be keeping the kids busy in an airport, getting them out on a hike, or sending them on a hunt to reveal that shiny new bike.
To use Klikaklu in this way, after you've created a hunt, tap Play and either play as yourself (with no points/badges accrued), or first create an account for your child (you can switch back and forth from the profile screen), then tap 'Switch to XXX's account', in which case you'll be signed in as them, and the hunt will be started.
With public hunts, you can also create or play by yourself, in the spirit of geocaching or letterboxing. At this point there aren't many hunts out there, but you can create them (if you're 13 or over). Public hunts are great for such things as setting up walking tours, showing off your favorite eateries, creating fun physical checklists ("climb all the 14k mountains in the US!"). Other players can like and comment on your hunts (you will optionally be notified when they do), and you get badges for creating/playing hunts in different cities/states/countries. You can see all the available badges from your profile.
Some other things to note:
Last week we were graced by Apple as 'New and Noteworthy', and today, after scrambling to provide them with artwork at short notice, they featured us in the Navigation category!
Thanks, Apple!
Just watched a great Klikaklu mention from the friendly folks hosting the .
Thanks, Alison!
In response to feedback, and to cross a few items off our todo list, we've recently released a few updates to Klikaklu. Here's what we've done recently:
There are situations where you don't want some clues to be eligible as a first clue. Perhaps you're doing a road rally hunt with clues spread out at multiple locations, and you don't teams to start midway through the clues at a location, or perhaps you have two clues that are close enough to one another that you don't want one team to see another. To handle this, you can exclude specific clues from the startup list.
Stay tuned! There will be more to come!
[Edit: We've for people to share information about creating hunts. It contains many how-to guides and frequently asked questions. It also contains .
Come join us there!]
We've been asked what makes a good public hunt, and having made a few ourselves, we have some suggestions to offer.
This is obviously the most important element. Someone is taking their precious time to follow the path you laid out, don't waste it on a bland tour of your local supermarket's aisles. Have an interesting inner city walk or challenging rural bike ride you particularly enjoy? Is there a breathtaking overlook or meditative stream few are aware of? Or perhaps you have an eye for interesting detail in an otherwise mundane everyday setting? Focus on what surprises and interests you.
Maybe interesting to you means highlighting seminal architecture or unusual geological formations. Maybe it's a tour of your favorite sweets shops. Maybe the interest is less in the path, and more in the details: an inspired work of art, an ironic sign, a relevant but often missed public notice.
Maybe you want to create a bucket list for others: require them to visit the best tourist sites in Seattle, or climb all the tallest mountains in the US. (Some hunts might be harder to create than others!)
Maybe you want a slow, savory hunt, or perhaps you're more interested in a fast and frantic rally, searching for .
Whatever it is, put yourself in the shoes of your players, as they'll soon be walking in your footsteps. Is it for kids? Make sure there's space to run around without traffic, and don't take your pictures from an adult's eye level. Are these chiseled-bodied X-gamers? Make the clues extremely difficult to reach. Older couples? Keep it on a smooth, level path.
Your hunt's description should give some sense of its character. If there is difficult terrain, let people know. If it's a bar crawl, kids shouldn't be playing it, so let their parents know.
Inform people regarding how much time your hunt will require. You can do this by setting Time Required on the Hunt Details screen.
Your hunt may be around for a long time. Will that painting on the wall still be here in a year? Are you in snow country? Will it melt in the spring? In either case, your clues will likely stop matching as time goes by. Try to find subjects that have a good chance of lasting for awhile.
If your hunt is public, you absolutely MUST avoid private spaces. And of course, avoid inflammatory or potentially offensive content. Your hunt will likely be removed if doesn't follow these guidelines, and your account potentially suspended.
Play with your clue and hunt titles to add more texture. They can even be subtle (or not so subtle) hints, like "Under the Boardwalk". Just don't give it all away!
People will enjoy your hunt more if the clues match consistently. To improve matching under varied conditions, here are some things to consider:
The GPS in your phone is great, but it will occasionally put the pins for your clues inside walls, up trees, in the middle of a lake, etc., which might be slightly misleading to your players. Verify a clue is in the correct location by tapping Adjust on Map from the Clue Details screen. If it's off, you can drag the pin to the correct spot.
This isn't as hard as it sounds. You can simply take a picture of the surroundings, to lead them to the subject. You can of course get as creative as you wish, with visual or verbal riddles.
Again, consider your subjects; if they're kids, you'll want to make the hunts easy. If they can't yet read, you'll want to use pictures. And avoid references your likely audience won't understand (for example, if they aren't familiar with the graphic novel Bone, they're not going to understand references to Rat Creatures and Quiche).
While the journey itself should be the reward, you'll delight your players even more if there's something waiting for them at the end. This can be a joke, a personal anecdote/commentary about the spot they're standing on, a link to a relevant website, a silly picture, a call to meet the rest of the hunters somewhere, or some other interesting tidbit you think of.
Got any tips of your own? We'd love to hear them in the comments!
I'm excited to announce Klikaklu is in the App Store!
What started as a sneaky ploy to get our kids outside has become a bonafide product.
It's been a fun if rather obsessive journey, with a lot of great support from friends and family.
And to top it off, we just got this great writeup on GeekWire:
Klikaklu is nearly ready for public consumption. We're putting the last finishing touches on before submitting it for App Store approval. If you're interested in participating in the beta, we may still have a few invites left. to find out.