Technology to power a live experience in London, Riyadh and New York

Monopoly Lifesized is a venue where teams play on a life-sized Monopoly board, with actors running the game. The problems we had to solve:

• 4 teams and 2 actors per game
• No internet access
• Gameplay that must never stop
• No edge case allowed to exist

We split the roles across different apps on different tablets, one for actors and one for players, so nobody’s screen had to do two jobs. We built a local network for every component to connect to, so nothing depends on the internet, only on the venue’s WiFi. Every player pays £60 to be there, so a break in play is not acceptable: we built recovery and tablet swap-out methods that let the game carry on whatever fails. Players buy properties at auction and compete on leaderboards, so no game can be left broken or stuck in a state. We found every point at which it could break, and protected against all of them.

That is why the system caters for every edge case and every left-field use case, with instant recovery when the connection drops, a tablet runs out of power, or anything else you can imagine happens. The stakes are simple: no working game system means closing the doors to paying customers.

• Separate apps for actors and players
• Local server only, no internet dependency
• Multiple recovery modes
• Tested to break, then broken again

The whole game runs on a local network that powers the games, runs the auctions, drives the actors’ and staff tablets and the players’ tablets, and feeds real-time leaderboards on screens around the venue. We built all of it for London, and the same system now runs the venues in Riyadh and New York.

• Three venues on two continents: London, Riyadh and New York
• 250+ players a day in London
• 4 teams and 2 actors per game
• Local network, no internet dependency
• Auctions, leaderboards and live screens around the venue
• £60 a head, so no break in play is acceptable