For Individual Players

For Clan Leaders

After downloading the app - and reading the Safety Check and agreeing to the Terms of Service - how do I play this game?

Your goal is to add as many unique species to your collection as you can. There are two ways to do this.

   - Take photos of unique species yourself.

   - Receive species from other players who join your quests.

What's the best strategy to follow?

1) Start with your locality. Take photos of whatever wildlife you can. This will earn you some gold to get you started. You're give some powerful equipment at the beginning, so your first 10 sightings will receive quick responses. (See the "What is Equipment?" section below).

2) Start joining local quests to increase the gold you earn for your sightings. 

3) With the gold you earn, upgrade your equipment to increase the priority of your sightings, and the depth of identification (see the “What is Equipment?” section below).

4) Start creating quests, join a clan, invite other players to head-to-head challenges to increase your gold and grow your species collection.

How do I earn questa-gold?

There are several ways to earn gold:

   - Submit a new sighting, either by taking a photo, or by selecting a recent photo from your gallery. 

IMPORTANT: Sightings submitted as part of quests earn much more gold than non-quest sightings. 

Create quests and receive a percentage of the gold earned by other players for the quest you created.  

Join a clan. Clans can win Clan-of-the-Day, which earn bonus gold that’s distributed equally to clan members.

Challenge other players to head-to-head competitions.

Can I earn real money?

If you have wildlife expertise, you can earn real money which gets donated to an organisation of your choice. See http://questagame.com/expert

What’s a Head-to-Head Challenge?

Menu > Head-to-Head Challenge allows you to challenge other players in the game - or people you invite to join the game - to a 72-hour competition. If they accept the challenge, then you have 72 hours to earn more gold than they do. If you challenge another player and win, you receive bonus gold. 

How do I submit a "New Sighting?

Simple. Tap the camera icon - or Menu > New Sighting - and either take a new photo or submit a photo from your device’s gallery. For gallery submissions, if your photo is not geo-tagged, you will be asked to select a location.

Do I need to be online to submit a "New Sighting"?

No.

How much gold do I receive per sighting?

If the sighting is of a species, and comes from your device, or from an external camera with geo-tagging functionality, gold is awarded based on the rarity of the species for that location and season. (The system uses regional biodiversity data to calculate the gold reward). If the external photo is not geo-tagged, there’s a chance that gold may not be rewarded, but the sighting still counts toward your overall score and is added to your Collection.

The gold earned for sightings of locations on the map is based on the distance travelled between locations.

What do I do with the gold?

The gold allows you to join/create quests, join/create clans, start head-to-head challenges, buy supplies, equipment, and transport.

What is "Equipment"?

Your equipment determines how fast, and to what level of detail, your sightings will be verified. Some equipment also gives bonus gold. You can buy new equipment in Menu > Shop, and change the equipment at any time. Each equipment has a

- Priority rating. The higher the rating, the more quickly your sighting will be verified compared to others.

- Depth of ID rating. The higher the rating, the deeper the identification you'll receive. So, for example, a low depth of ID might result in a sighting coming back as a "Bird" or a "Parrot." Whereas a higher depth of ID might result in a species-level identification (e.g. "Eastern Rosella (Platycercus eximius)" with some scientific notes about the birds behaviour, etc. 

Note: If you submit a sighting with low depth of ID equipment, but you've correctly identified the sighting yourself, you'll still receive credit for your identification. For this reason, if you already know the species you're submitting, you're better off submitting the sighting with a low depth of iD (you can save high-level depth of ID equipment for specimens you don't know). 

IMPORTANT: Each new binoculars expires after a fixed number of verified sightings (default = 25).

What are "Supplies"?

Supplies allow you to join and create quests. (Note: In the next iteration of the game, supplies will determine the bonus gold you receive for your activity, with the attributes of each supply visible in the shop). Supplies expire after a certain number of days.

What is "Transport"?

Your transport determines how many supplies you can carry at the same time. The larger your transport, the more supplies you can carry simultaneously.

How do I start a Clan?

Go to Playing as a Group - Clans.

What about my data? It's shared with biodiversity research databases, right? What if I don't want that?

If you don't want your sightings data (photos, locations, your user name) shared with biodiversity databases for scientific research and conservation, simply go to the app's Menu > Settings - and turn off the "share" option. By default, sharing is on.

If you turn off sharing, QuestaGame will still process your sightings and other players will be able to see them. But photos and location data will not be shared outside the game, and the maps are not zoomed in to show detailed locations. 

If you're concerned about privacy but want your sightings data to contribute to scientific research and conservation, we recommend ensuring you use a fake name as your user name. In fact, we recommend creating a fake character name in any case.

Any other advice?

Yes! Keep an eye on the Dashboard > Comms for the latest information. Also, make sure you read through the QuestaGame Safety Check! It's very important.

My community has many groups. Can I have multiple clans, one for each group?

Absolutely. An organisation with multiple clans is what we call a tribe. The great thing about a tribe is that you can have competitions in which your clans compete against each other. This is an excellent way to get your community learning about and engaging with nature, while increasing your biodiversity map at the same time. 

 

As a clan leader, can I communicate with my clan members?

Yes. You can message the entire clan through the app. Within the app, clan members can view messages and communicate with fellow clan members via Menu > Clans > My Clan. 

 

How do I start a quest for my clan members?

Easy. You can do this within the app itself (Menu > Quests). Or, even easier, simply contact info@questagame.com and let the support team set up the quest for you. We have a lot of experience in setting up quests to meet specific targets.
 

If we're a QuestaGame Partner, can we earn money? 

Yes. That's because a lot of environmental organisations have members with wildlife expertise. Maybe you have a member who can identify plants. Or an experienced entomologist. Or a good twitcher (someone who collects bird sightings).  QuestaGame needs these experts to help identify and verify sightings, which is why it's willing to pay your organisation a donation for their expertise. For more information, see here

How does QuestaGame verify sightings so quickly?

QuestaGame has cultivated a unique network of taxonomy experts around the world, and as more QGame players improve their skills, the network of verifiers expands. QuestaGame believes that environmental expertise is valuable to society and deserves remuneration. A significant portion of clan payments goes toward funding top experts and ensuring quality verifications. 
 

What's an easy way to start promoting my clan or tribe?

There are two simple ways to do it.

First, once your clan or tribe is set up, you will receive the URL of your public clan page. This page will have a map of your "Territory." It will also have a "Join Clan" button on it.
You can send this link around to your community and people can click the "Join Clan." 

Second, you will also receive a login for the QuestaGame web portal. Once you login, you can go to My Clans > Invite players.  You can invite existing QGame players (you can find them on your "Territory" map), or you can invite non-QGame people by entering their email addresses. 
 

What analytics will I have access to?

Once your clan or tribe is created, you can login to the QuestaGame portal and view the sightings as they come in (Menu > Activity). You can also see your biodiversity map and scores.  More stats will be available as the site develops. If you'd like any specific data about your community's activity, simply contact info@questagame.com and we can provide it for you. We can even offer a cool looking reporting template. 
 (Note: We do not provide personal data about users). 
 

How much assistance can we expect from QuestaGame?

As much as you require. Bigger clans and tribes will obviously require more assistance. We're here to help with whatever you need - including setting up quests and competitions as required. A win for you is a win for environmental education and conservation - which is what QuestaGame is all about.