Playmasons Partners With Bumbershoot to Celebrate the 5th Annual Emerald City Search

Sept. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Seattle, Washington

Emerald City Search has returned for another exciting citywide Search for our hidden medallion! Beginning on Wednesday, August 25th, the 5th annual ECS helped Seattle celebrate 40 years of Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival by featuring ten brain busting clues, concluding last night at 12:25 am when one lucky winner found the medallion, claiming an exciting Grand Prize valued at $6,845 featuring 40 Seattle Arts Experiences!

This is the second year that Playmasons has teamed up with Bumbershoot after previous partnerships with the University of Washington, Seattle Art Museum and Woodland Park Zoo. Each year’s medallion is unique and last year’s event centered on a medallion made to look like a replica of an old 78 record, “Seattle Hunch” by Jelly-Roll Morton. Disguised as a stainless steel parking sign sidewalk disc, it was found in front of Jive Time Records in Fremont.

Playmasons has been creating the Search for the past four years and has owned the event for the past two. The purpose of the Search is to create a community enriching experience while highlighting a local institution. The challenge comes from building a puzzle that connects the cultural history of Seattle with clues that sends adventurers out to discover the city in a new, exciting way. Players must solve the unique answer to each day’s clue and then triangulate each day’s answers to determine the mystery location. The history, rules and prizes for this annual event can be viewed at Emerald City Search’s official website at: http://www.emeraldcitysearch.com/

As the 2010 Emerald City Search played out, a lively fan-based conversation took place at http://www.facebook.com/emeraldcitysearch where medallion-seekers compared notes, shared theories, and related their stories of exploring Seattle to find the coveted prize. Now that the medallion has been found the discussion has turned to puzzle-solvers talking about their own interpretations of the clues and what they think about this year’s Search. The story about this year's winners, Kem & Patrick Gibbs, can be found at The Seattle Times link here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/201276875...

It takes three months to build each year’s Search: to selecting our cultural beneficiary, determining the medallion, organizing the prize, building the clues, releasing them through our media partner the Seattle Times and promoting the Search using our own new media platforms. For the second year, Playmasons has a dedicated website, Facebook and Twitter page that all work in conjunction to release the clues, promote the Search and offer tips and advice to help enrich the play experience.

Playmasons is a small but significant creative partnership that works to build clever and fun play experiences. Playmasons has worked with the City of Seattle and Sound Transit using interactive media to educate and inform their communities. Playmasons has also designed and built traditional board games, conducted live trivia contests, and developed iPad/iPhone game applications. This fall, Playmasons is proud to launch two new iPad Applications: Cargo Runners (a multiplayer adventure game on the high seas) and Match-O-Matic (bringing our trivia expertise to the electronic world!).

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From traditional board games, live searches, and trivia contests, to the latest iPad/iPhone game applications, Playmasons, LLC offers social and institutional gaming experiences that educate and entertain! Visit our websites at www.playmasons.com or www.emeraldcitysearch.com to learn more!