Visitors to the Tower of London will be able to actively participate in some of its most infamous and audacious escapes in the places they
really happened, with the launch of the London landmark’s first ever iphone app.

Developed in partnership between Historic Royal Palaces and Calvium, the free app will bring the 1,000 year old fortress’ spaces and stories alive through the innovative use of new technologies.

This historically accurate, location-aware game uses sensors within the Tower to trigger content as participants attempt to smuggle virtual
letters, ropes and other contraband to help prisoners escape.

Blending the physical site with virtual content, players also have to answer
questions and make decisions which affect the outcome of the game. They earn gold sovereigns as they complete tasks but may have to bribe Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) with them if they get caught mid-escape!

The app is available for download from the Apple app store from 18 December 2010 ready for the Christmas holidays. Visitors can download the app to their own iPhones (and later to Android smartphones) for free – either before they arrive or at newly installed Wi-fi hotspots on Tower Hill – and play it on site at the
Tower. The highest scoring players will have an opportunity to win prizes.

 The game will allow visitors to meet some of the Tower of London’s most colourful characters, including:

• Ranulf Flambard, the Tower’s first escapee who fled by rope from the White Tower in 1101 after throwing a party and getting his guards drunk;

• A polar bear, a gift from King Haakon of Norway to Henry III in the 13thcentury, who had a collar and chain so he could go fishing in the Thames;

• John Gerard, a Jesuit priest who wrote secret letters in orange juice and then escaped by rope from the Cradle Tower into a waiting boat in 1597;

• Henry Laurens, an American who was captured sailing to Holland to raise funds for the fight for independence in 1780 and negotiated a prisoner swap with the former Constable of the Tower.

This project is the culmination of the first of three TSB pilot projects planned over the coming year. The project is a collaboration with partners Watershed, Calvium, Bristol Old Vic, Historic Royal Palaces and the New Museum of Bristol. Initial experiments will focus on the Heritage and Tourism sector but will create technology that can be rolled out across other sectors.

To develop the game a new script has been written, actors have recorded the prisoner’s voices,  and the game has been produced and
tested. Over the October school holidays invited family groups tested the game and the developers at Calvium and Historic Royal Palaces are very happy with the result and the collaboration, as voiced by Jo Reid, who is the creative director at Calvium: “Working with HRP as part of the small creative team who made the Prisoners game has been a real pleasure. Using the Calvium platform has enabled us to rapidly prototype, test and develop the game at a fast pace without compromising functionality or features. I am excited to see how the game will be received by the players and hope this is the start of many more history based location-aware games.”.

Visitors to the Tower of London will be able to actively participate in some of its most infamous and audacious escapes in the places they really happened, with the launch of the London landmark’s first ever iphone app. Developed in partnership between Historic Royal Palaces and Calvium, the free app will bring the 1,000 year old fortress’ spaces and stories alive through the innovative use of new technologies.