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How It
Works

attract new customers to your business with gamication.

When people hear gamification, they envision games created for a business purpose. But gamification is not about creating something new. It is about amplifying the effect of an existing business model, or core experience by applying the same motivational techniques that make games so engaging. In short, gamification is the process of transforming an existing business model by creating new ways to extend relationships, craft longer-term engagement, and drive customer and employee loyalty. It works because it leverages the motivations and desires that exist in all of us for community, feedback, achievement and reward.

how once upon a time attracts new customers and encourage loyalty through gamification.

overview of the gameplay.

Once Upon a Crime is a location based who-did-it mystery game for the mobile phone, made freely available to the public - downloadable through the Apple App Store and Google Play. The application was created as a gaming platform which promotes localized retail shops, restaurants, museums, and other entertainment centers by encouraging the player to visit these locations as a core function of completing the game.

In-game, our players are presented with a list of unique suspects, weapons, and crime scenes. While our suspects and weapons are fictional, the crime scenes presented in game are real world locations within the games defined market. The player must travel to these locations, and make an accusation against a suspect and declare the weapon that was used in the crime. The player is only allowed to make one accusation per location per day.

If the player guesses wrong, a suspect, weapon, or location is eliminated for them automatically. For example, they may be told that "Detective - forensics just tested the Ax and ruled it out.", or “Sorry Detective, it turns our Mrs. Smith has a solid alibi”. These eliminated suspects, weapons, and locations are tracked in-game, and allows the player to determine the true criminals identity through a process of elimination.

The first player to guess the correct combination of suspect, victim, weapon, and location wins the game, along with all points that may be awarded as part of that game. As the player builds their points, they can be redeemed them for real awards.

Game Markets

Each game operates in a given market. Generally, a market is based on a city, but in some larger metropolitan areas, we may further sub-divide it by a townships or incorporated areas if there is a user base to support it. Currently, over 85,000 markets have been defined worldwide. In each market, we run one public game at a time, featuring up to twenty vendors within a single game.

When a player downloads and starts Once Upon a Crime on their mobile device, they are presented with a list of local games in their area. Players can then join and participate in these games for free. Once joined, they will see a list of locations they need to visit to play the game and make accusations. Your sponsored location would be one of these.

sponsored locations are gauranteed inclusion in the game.

By becoming a crime scene, your business will be featured in our public game as a potential location of the crime. Players must travel to your location to make accusations that the crime occurred at your location, and can return on subsequent days to make additional accusations – thus increasing your marketing exposure through multiple contacts.

sponsored locations can offer coupons and promotions in the game.

Using our mobile application, you will be able to share in-game discounts or coupons with these players on each visit to your location – enticing them to become a customer within your establishment. These coupons are accessable in the game anytime to the player, and are automatically shown to the player when they check in to your location to make an accusation as part of the game play.

How long does a game last?

Generally, one month. If a game goes over that time, a new game is started, and the unclaimed points from the old game gets rolled into the new one... meaning the award grows larger, which further entices more players to participate.

This sounds great and all, but I am expecting this is expensive as well.

Not at all. Vendors can join our games for as low as $23.99 per game. We do encourage vendors who want to participate to consider joining for multiple months - which we do offer discounts for. Remember - we limit ourselves to 20 vendors per game, and it is on a first come first serve basis.

How do I sponsor my location?

Easy! Install the Once Upon a Crime game to your mobile phone device from the Google App Store or Apple's App Store. Open the app, and create a free account. On the main menu you will see an option to sponsor your location. Simply select that option, and follow the simple instructions!