As a developer - not a museum employee - we've developed both games and marketing materials that used a 'hook' to keep people interested/coming back.

For general 'fun' we've developed digitally interactive kiosks for on-location play. But have found that making the game a stationary event created longer-term memory retention. Scavenger hunts driven by the kiosks visually (saw kids runnin' round) made an impact - but was rarely finished as the reward for running around wasn't "worth it."

Spacially reactive games have had a greater success at keeping kids attention for a long time - but memory retention wasn't very high.

Socially Driven-Space Reactive games that required multiple persons to complete a task within a reactive space turned the learners into teachers!

We haven't done any GeoTagging games - no opportunity yet! - but have been working on a museum-without-walls concept that's contest driven, cell phone driven with a component that requires an in-museum visit. (Still in the works - and secretive) ;)

Not to be preachy - but tracking number of kids played is a great thing for marketing, but can't be used as a measure for success. Things like memory retention and ability to teach others are 'success' measures.

Hope this helps?!

Please feel free to contact me for more information.

Micah (at) zender (dot) com
Or
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Micah

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