Lockdown Logistics: A new free online video game
Lockdown Logistics is a new free online video game created in Christchurch over the past seven days. Local game developers CerebralFix and Gap Filler quickly created the game in response to Aotearoa New Zealand going into COVID-19 Alert Level 4 ‘lockdown’. Players are invited to help keep the country running whilst following the rules of lockdown to beat the pandemic.
In the game, you are an elite driver whose mission is to keep the nation moving, delivering essential parcels and groceries to homes in lockdown. Pick up your essential parcels from the depot or supermarket, and navigate the map to deliver them to the right addresses as quickly as possible.
Play the Lockdown Logistics game online.
“The rules of lockdown are the rules of the game,” Gap Filler project developer Damian Doyle said. “You’ve got to keep a 2-metre distance from people out exercising, and maintain your bubbles. We thought this would be a fun and collective way to celebrate essential workers and help reiterate key messages from the government’s response.”
In the collective spirit of the pandemic response, each player’s score contributes to both a national and global score as we work collectively to deliver as many parcels as possible. Some in-game features or content will be unlocked when the national or global scores reach certain targets, so there is incentive for everyone to work together.
“We were looking for something we could do to contribute to everyone’s wellbeing in these strange times,” CerebralFix General Manager Nadia Thorne said. “When Gap Filler approached us it was an easy ‘yes’ to ask a few of our developers to spend a week on such a relevant project. We see it like a digital version of people putting teddy bears in their windows.”
In fact, while driving around in the game, players will notice bears in house windows, and other very clear and specific references to New Zealand’s lockdown.
Gap Filler and CerebralFix previously worked together on Gap Filler’s Super Street Arcade project, the world’s first giant, outdoor arcade game system on the corner of Tuam and High Streets in Christchurch. Another console has recently been installed in the city of Townsville in Queensland, Australia. Lockdown Logistics will feature as a public game on both consoles – once they’re allowed to be played again.
Gap Filler is supported in part by Christchurch City Council.