Archive for October 21st, 2016

Hunting for Pokémon in State Parks

Friday, October 21st, 2016
Even Pokémon love Texas Wildlife

Even Pokémon love Texas Wildlife

 

This is Passport

When Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine art director, Nathan Adams’, tech-obsessed sons started to willingly spend time outdoors, he grew curious about their uncharacteristic behavior.

The kids are going outside. They’re going on long walks. And I’m like—what are we doing? ‘Oh, we’re catching Pokémon.’ And I was thinking the card game. But it’s this new video experience.

The Pokémon GO APP by Niantic Inc., became an overnight sensation upon its release in early July. App users search for Pokémon characters in “augmented reality”. This gave Adams an idea.

Because they [his sons] were doing lots of walks and lots of outdoor activities, I thought, ‘Do these exist in parks?’ And lo and behold they did! Hence the idea: can we tie our existing magazine app and our existing parks content to this new phenomena that’s bubbling through the zeitgeist of Pokémon GO?

Under his direction, Adams’ unleased two twenty-something interns on the project, and they created a new digital guide in the magazine’s free mobile app that offers tips and tricks for Pokémon hunting adventures in Texas State Parks.

And so, if you download the APP, which is free, you’ll find maps of over 25 parks—and we’re adding to it regularly—where you can find poke stops, poke gyms and Pokémon that have been seen or captured in that park.

Download the Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine Pokémon APP for free from the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.