Prehistoric beasts roam Orange’s parks and gardens

These areas of wide-open spaces have been chosen as sites where children can play ‘Magical Park’ a digital playground mobile phone or tablet app created by New Zealand based developer GEO A.R. Games., to highlight Parks Week throughout Australia.

Orange City Council’s Deputy Mayor Jason Hamling said the game was similar to the recently popular Pokemon Go, but there were a few significant differences.

“Unlike other augmented reality based games, in Magical Park kids have to physically chase after, and run away from, the creatures they can see through the screen of their mobile device,” he said.

“It’s fantastic because it gets kids out of the house, they’re active, they’re using open grassed areas that don’t have a lot of foot traffic and they’re having a great time.”

Magical Park is a type of geofenced game, which means it can only be played in selected parks and has an invisible boundary, which prevents kids from running on to the road.

Orange City Council chose the three areas because they were large, had few obstacles and were spread across the city so kids from all areas had access.

“Basically kids create their own gaming environment when using the app,” Cr Hamling said.

“They can chose to run with dinosaurs, kittens or fairies.

“We’ve had a couple of kids give the Newman Park site a test run and both said it was better than any other augmented realty game they had played and they certainly liked the physical activity element.

“The app is also free for users, it’s free from any advertising and as a parent I think that’s fantastic.

“The game has invisible boundaries but it also important to be mindful of your surroundings when playing the game. It’s best young children are supervised.”

Families can download the ‘Magical Park’ app at home and then bring their smart phone or tablet device to any of the three parks to play.

The app is available on Android and Apple phones. For more information and videos on how to play head to this website.