Treasure Hunters

[Marc Lighter]

With all the new smartphones with GPS I'd like to develop an interative game that gets real people involved in a real treasure hunt. The thrill of the "quest" lives in most of us, and the app would have to be exciting, dynamic, and highly interactive. However, it could be pretty easy to pull off if we had the right developers and devised a working system. I envision this as an iPhone app, but I'm sure it could be ported to other smartphone platforms. You would download the app for free. Then you decide to take part in "challenges". The smaller challenges lead up to the treasure hunt. A designated rep in each major city (we could start with Knoxville) would hide different items and provide clues to to the items and their whereabouts (maybe even giving out longitude and latitude information). Participants would pay $5 to be able to join in the hunt and they would use their GPS and clues from the app to find the treasure. I envision one a month to build up excitement and depending on the popularity maybe as frequently as once a week (Saturday would probably draw more participants). Each treasure hunt would have a prize at the end (say 10%-20% of the gross revenue generated on that hunt or even some "prize" donated by a local business as an advertising avenue). It would have to be a big prize worth $200 or more. Is there anyone interested in working on this?

[Leonard Knight]

I love the idea! I don't have time to participate but do have a couple of suggestions for the project. Instead of using GPS and a smartphone app, just use twitter. Clues cost money via paypal or obopay. The goal is to be first to the lunch or dinner spot. Everyone that arrives at the correct restaurant gets $5 off their bill plus you get $5 per head for every client you get in the door. You make $1 per clue from every player plus $5 per head for every player. The restaurant is in for $10 per head (a bargain) for all the new clients.

Each Hunt = 50 contestants = $250 in Clues (avg 5 per player) + $250 Restaurant Referral Fee = $500

(4) Hunts a day = $2,000/day