MysteryOnMainStreet.com

Mystery on Main Street (MoMS) is a new interactive “whodunit” game for mobile phones made freely available to the public and downloadable through the Apple App Store and Google Play. In each “gameplay”, the application takes players from location to location to receive clues and solve a mystery while promoting local merchants (e.g.: storefront retailers, restaurants, bookshops, events, entertainment centers) by encouraging the player who must browse within these locations as a core function of completing the game. Participating locations are viewable worldwide within the app’s map but the clue is only viewable within the location, and only within a small window of time. This motivates impulse buying and return shopping. The first player to solve the mystery receives a valuable prize. Gameplays can be engineered to continue for a determined time. The storylines are fictional and never based on actual circumstances. Think of this as Groupon meets scavenger hunt and Pokémon Go, but players and participating merchants mutually gain with no membership or subscription required.

Data for the most successful similar mobile game reveals the average player is a 26 y/o woman making US$90k per year, the best player is 70 and group players range in age from 16 to over 60. In other words, this is not a kid’s game.

Think of this as Groupon meets scavenger hunt meet Pokémon Go, but players and participating merchants mutually gain with no membership or subscription required.