What QRfest is, where it came from, and how to play.
QR codes (QRs) are designed so you can share long web addresses quickly and conveniently between devices — for example, the QR on the home page, when scanned with a QR reader, brings you to this game’s home page.
This game is about promoting QRs and their use in real-world scenarios, as well as an experiment in ‘mining’ QR codes the way we ‘mined’ the Bitcoin blockchain — only using a lot less electricity.
QRfest is a modern take on, and a nod to, both Warhammer Quest and a great hand-held console game from the mid-90s called Barcode Battler.
Barcode Battler required a hand-held console to play; QRfest instead uses a player’s mobile camera to take live photos of QRs and join in the game and QReconomy.
To start, take a live photo of a QR code by tapping the QR shown on the home page, or upload an image file containing a QR code. Once you have created a character and an account you can keep scanning QRs manually or by uploading them — or, for convenience, auto-generate a QR by pasting in a web address and clicking ‘GENERATE QR & DISCOVER A FIND!’.
PC and all users can upload QR codes as well as generate QRs to use and share with others here.
Scan new QRs for items, minions and equipment to add to your character sheet and collections; sell and trade items; and risk items and minions in the arena for the chance to win — or lose — them.
The game also acts as a platform for the community to work out how common or rare QRs are in the real world, as we scan posters, boxes, packaging, shop windows, websites and much more.
Each QR can only be scanned once, and every scanned QR is rated on a tiered system from tier 0 to tier 10 depending on how common or rare it is. The more unusual the QR (tier 0 being the most common), the better your chance of rarer finds.