Boston City Center Self-Guided City Exploration Game: America's Firsts

Explore Boston city center with a self-guided city exploration game that blends a tour, outdoor escape game, and treasure hunt at your own pace.

Getting started

Begin your self-guided city exploration game on your smartphone at the time that suits you. There is no fixed meeting point or start time, so you simply launch the experience when you are ready. From there, you follow on-screen directions, solving each challenge to move from one location to the next.

What to expect

Boston Public Library

The experience leads you to the Boston Public Library, noted in the game for its architecture and role in the city center. This is one of the key sites where Boston's history connects with national "firsts."

Features

• Challenges at the Boston Public Library prompt you to look closely at the building and its surroundings, helping you explore its beautiful architectural details as part of the story.
• As a self-guided city exploration game and private tour with no human contact, this stop lets you engage with the library at your own pace, without following a physical tour guide or group.

State House

Your route continues to the historic State House, another highlight on the trail of Boston's "first in the nation" achievements. The game uses this setting to reveal how politics and civic life shaped the city.

Features

• Puzzles and tasks at the State House focus on its historic importance and exterior features, turning the building and nearby area into clues that unlock new parts of the narrative.
• This stop is part of the combination tour, outdoor escape game, and treasure hunt format, available 24/7 with no time limit, so you can pause nearby and resume later when convenient.

Bell telephone site

You also visit the Bell telephone site, where Alexander Graham Bell first used the telephone. Here, the experience shifts to Boston's role in technological innovation.

Features

• Interactive challenges at the Bell telephone site guide you to notice specific details linked to Alexander Graham Bell and his early experiments, adding context to the invention of the telephone.
• This location forms one of the stops in the self-guided city exploration game, which you can start anytime, then pause and resume freely using your smartphone. Wi-Fi and a physical tour guide are not included.

City route and gameplay

Across all locations, you trace Boston's role as a place of "America's firsts," from civic institutions to communications technology. The city itself becomes your game board.

Features

• The complete city game typically takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to finish, and there is no time limit, so you can stretch it into a longer walk or complete it in a single run.
• Throughout the route, you enjoy a unique mix of a tour, outdoor escape game, and treasure hunt, solving challenges and unlocking secret stories of each location through your phone as a private tour with no human contact.