The grand prize in the scavenger hunt was a $10,000 lifetime pass to all current and future Meow Wolf exhibitions (hey, Denver. hey, Las Vegas). The winner also received a brick with their name on it at the new Hope Outdoor Gallery.
Out of nearly 3,000 registrants, we gave passports to the first 150 people to arrive at the Consulate Office, a chaotically bureaucratic space hosted by the Rabbithole Immersive team from the Bay Area. The passport officers gave players their very first stamp of the hunt. The first player to get all 10 stamps on their passport won the grand prize.
Characters hiding throughout Austin held the remaining nine stamps. Passport holders received cryptic text messages that gave them clues to hunt down these stamp-bearers. The hunt (engineered with the help of Twin Alchemy Collective's incredible Katie Green) took contestants to such Austin institutions as the Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata, the Austin Tinkering School, the original Soup Peddler, and an abandoned zoo in the Walnut Creek Greenbelt.
Some of the most memorable moments of the hunt were at pop-up immersive events. Players:
The competition was downright feral at times, but as the week went on we noticed that the scavvers created their own emergent community. They helped each other, sometimes offering tips on where players could find stamps. This got us thinking...
The game culminated in a grand finale, where the final seven participants who held nine stamps each were asked to decide the winner by consensus. Who helped the most? Who made the game fun? Who, other than yourself, would you like to see win? The seven finalists were certainly all worthy, but after a difficult and heartfelt group process, the players chose Jane Tan as the grand prize winner. 'Grats, Jane!
Our film team captured a lot of the hunt as it unfolded. Keep an eye peeled for the Meow Wolf Outside mini-doc. Coming soon!