Ever wanted to be the mayor of your own town but could never afford Sim City or felt it was just a fake? Well, here at PublicVoice we found something so cool that our team have become addicted to our smartphones again to the extent we can’t help but keep playing into the late hours of the night.
Run That Town is a cool new app that allows you to run a your own Australian town based upon real census data and put different situations to the test. You can build things and even propose ideas to the public for them to approve or disapprove.
Run That Town allows you to simulate how a town would really work and allow you to make decisions that your community might like. You get 10 years in the mayors chair to be able to achieve something for the community. At the end of the 10 years, your either be given a parade or be chased out of town by the locals with pitchforks.
The game was the brainchild of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and was originally dreamed up over a 90 minute coffee break. Wow, those Aussies sure do sit around don’t they!
Ever wondered what a casino would do to a town? Well in this game, you can ask people what they think about building such a facility. The use of census data allows users to see how affordable it is and whether it will in fact be popular in the community.
Run That Town also allows you to consult residents of a local community for their view prior to you building anything for your community. In my case it was whether or not I wanted to build a community housing block in my town. The game allows you hear the views of your residents while comparing it to the census data obtained in a particular area. For example, if I had a population that was of higher income earning potential and owned there houses then building a set of community houses wouldn’t be a good lock. In the end I decided against doing such a move in fear of losing my job as mayor.
However, I couldn’t turn down my local six year old’s request for an ice cream factory. Everyone loves ice cream right?
One of the other features of the Run That Town game is being alerted to any crisis that maybe happening at any one time and focus you to take action to correct it.
Overall, this game is exciting and really makes census data come alive. We would love to see Statistics New Zealand getting together with a local app builder and bring some of our local towns alive. It would be cool to transform places like Taihape, Hamilton, Riwaka and Oamaru if people got the chance given those towns need it.
The app is available only for Ipad and Iphone users (Sorry Android users, we just have to wait) which is available for download from the app store.