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Demo scan page · combo 4

Cedar Rapids city game

Over one weekend, Cedar Rapids starts behaving like programmable public space. Relay arches, riverwalk drops, bridge warnings, witness seals, and hidden cabinets can all coexist: some fight over territory, some coordinate trust, and some wake only when the city solves them together.

Design target for a Cedar Rapids weekend. No geo-tracking, movement analytics, social heatmaps, or hidden engagement scoring. Cooperation should beat exploitation.

Season window Wake the city · 2026-06-06T18:00:00-05:00 → 2026-06-08T22:00:00-05:00

Read the rules and open the weekend city board before scanning game nodes. Resolver-backed play runs on live /c/… scan URLs. Demo layouts on this page remain design reference.

What this scan demo is exploring

Evolving objects

  • A riverwalk QR can wake a temporary object for 48 hours
  • Objects can rotate messages, clues, or weather-aware states
  • Neighborhood stewards can revoke or pause them when physical space changes

Relay control + communication

  • Relay arches can show district control and rotating signed bulletins
  • Neutral zones can expose truce windows, meetup windows, or courier drops
  • Owning a node changes public space, not private chat transcripts

Trust chains + cooperative unlocks

  • One object can unlock another in Czech Village
  • Some objects only appear after enough voluntary contributions with a site code
  • Others require a nearby trusted object, business, or steward to vouch first

Compromise without surveillance

  • Spies can jam or poison a relay by publishing a signed compromise notice
  • The scan shows current trust state, not a per-player access log
  • Rekeying or revoking clears the relay without keeping scan history

Rule design · cooperation beats exploitation

Use game theory so the strongest move is helping the city wake up together, not hiding information or farming a private score.

  • Public goods mechanics Some objects only wake after a shared threshold. For example 20 site-code contributions unlocking the next clue for everyone.
  • Anti-hoarding rewards The first finder gets a seed clue, but the object evolves only after several more people scan it, so sharing beats secrecy.
  • Trust and vouch mechanics Deeper paths can require a vouch from a NewBo object, a local business, or a community steward without demanding legal identity.
  • Prisoner's-dilemma choices A player can reveal a clue privately now for a small win, or leave it hidden long enough for the group to unlock a better shared ending.
  • Scarcity without surveillance Use expiring clues, rotating QR states, and limits like 25 passes before sunset instead of tracking who went where.
  • Sybil resistance Rate limits, proof-of-control challenges, local physical codes, one-time signed tokens, business-issued vouches, and device-local limits curb scan spam without identity dossiers.
  • Coordination games Fragments from Czech Village, NewBo, and Greene Square can combine into the next state, rewarding city-scale coordination over solo optimization.

Live map flavor

  • Riverwalk lantern hit 20 contributions and woke the next clue
  • Red reclaimed the NewBo relay arch and posted a rotating bulletin
  • Czech Village cabinet evolved after the first finder shared it outward
  • Blue compromised the 16th Avenue bridge bulletin until rekey
  • Skywalk note stayed hidden long enough to unlock the better shared ending
  • Greene Square added the third fragment and completed the route lattice
  • Library witness card issued its final sunset pass and closed for the night

Scan view · NewBo relay arch

What the scanner sees now

  • District: NewBo relay arch
  • Controller: Red team
  • Relay status: open for the next 18 minutes
  • Current bulletin: "Shift west, mural alley stays safe"

Card chain behind this node

  • Base node card: relay arch, coordinates, public label
  • District stream: controller, capture window, truce timer
  • Relay stream: rotating bulletin, route hint, courier drop
  • Steward stream: mural wall clear, no obstruction, event note

Boundary

  • Owning the relay posts a public message, not private chat transcripts
  • Compromise state is visible without access logs or identity trails
  • Physical safety and cleanup notes outrank relay copy

Scan view · Riverwalk drop

What the scanner sees now

  • Object: River Lantern
  • Window: visible until Sunday, 20:00
  • Collective progress: 20 contributions completed
  • Unlock state: Czech Village object now visible
  • Steward note: trail remains open

Card chain behind this node

  • Base object card: public label, district, and expiration
  • Event stream: 48-hour window, rotating river message, revocation rule
  • Public-goods stream: quorum reached, next object released in Czech Village
  • Anti-hoarding stream: first finder got the seed clue, but value increased by sharing
  • Steward stream: flood, cleanup, or closure note if real space changes

Boundary

  • The threshold is anonymous and resets with the object
  • The scan exposes current state, not who helped unlock it
  • Device-local cooldowns and one-time tokens stop quorum spam
  • If stewards pause the site, the object disappears cleanly

Scan view · 16th Avenue bridge relay

What the scanner sees now

  • Node: 16th Avenue bridge crossing
  • State: compromised relay
  • Trusted bulletin paused pending rekey
  • Neutral capture allowed while the warning stays live

Card chain behind this node

  • Base bridge card: crossing, district edge, escape route
  • District stream: controller, route rules, and truce timer
  • Compromise stream: spy action acknowledged, trust degraded
  • Steward stream: bridge remains physically open and safe to cross

How compromise works here

  • Spies can replace the relay packet with a decoy clue
  • The scan exposes the compromised state immediately
  • Teams recover by rotating the relay key, not by reading scan logs

Scan view · Czech Village cabinet

What the scanner sees now

  • Object: Hidden cabinet glyph
  • Visibility: unlocked by the riverwalk object
  • Access: vouched by a NewBo object and a neighborhood cafe
  • Current message: "Ask the mural what remembers winter"
  • Choice: reveal privately now or wait for the stronger shared ending

Card chain behind this node

  • Base object card: cabinet, alley, and public label
  • Lore stream: rotating message, archive fragment, temporary event window
  • Trust stream: requires a vouch from the library witness object or a local business
  • Choice stream: private reveal now versus delayed shared ending
  • Steward stream: repainting or closure can revoke the clue

How it stays local

  • No account is needed to read or contribute to the shared chain
  • Neighborhood-created lore can be signed without making social graphs
  • Vouches create legitimacy without creating legal identity
  • The object can go dark without preserving a behavioral archive

Scan view · Library witness object

What the scanner sees now

  • Object: Library witness seal
  • Trust state: actively vouching for the Czech Village cabinet
  • Scarcity state: 11 sunset passes remain
  • Next reveal: skywalk clue opens only while this seal is live
  • Event note: expires after tonight's poetry reading

Card chain behind this node

  • Base witness card: public institution, role, and open hours
  • Trust stream: which nearby objects it currently vouches for
  • Scarcity stream: 25 passes before sunset, then automatic dormancy
  • Event stream: temporary gathering, rain mode, and revocation note
  • Sybil-resistance stream: one-time signed tokens and device-local ceilings
  • Steward stream: building closure or staffing pause

Additional ideas worth trying

  • Neighborhood-created lore chains authored by residents
  • Revocable physical clues attached to posters, kiosks, or river markers
  • Weather-only objects that appear during flood watches or snowfall
  • Three-way fragment puzzles spanning NewBo, Czech Village, and Greene Square

Data policy fit

Anonymous participation in shared urban memory.

This demo assumes no geo-tracking, no movement analytics, no social heatmaps, and no hidden engagement scoring. The resolver only needs the current signed object state: whether a relay is compromised, whether a trust chain is valid, whether a threshold has been met, whether a steward revoked the clue, and which public bulletins are live.

The city game should feel like anonymous participation in shared urban memory, not optimized behavioral telemetry. Sybil resistance should come from local friction like physical codes, one-time tokens, device-local ceilings, and business-issued vouches, not from building player dossiers. Public stewards can still publish closures, flood warnings, or cleanup holds when real space takes priority.

The best city game is a full coordination sandbox: relay contests, trust chains, compromise play, scarcity, and cooperative unlocks all change what physical objects reveal without creating a player dossier.