A massive real-Life experiment in behaviour and contagion
At the Lowlands Festival, 8.000 attendees became part of a living laboratory to study how infectious diseases spread at large-scale events. The Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) and regional health authorities (GGD) wanted to track the movements of festival visitors, but faced a practical challenge: nobody wanted to drain their phone battery for research.
In just six weeks, we created LowlandZ - a real-life, massive multiplayer zombie game. Players installed the app and saw their live location on an interactive festival map. Throughout the event, “Patient Zeros” were released, infecting nearby players and creating a dynamic spread of the virtual epidemic. A live dashboard allowed researchers to observe the outbreak in real time, simulating interventions and responses.
The results surpassed all expectations. Instead of the targeted 100 participants, nearly 8.000 people joined the game. The dataset was so rich that analysis took months, leading to scientific publications, updated epidemiological models, and many thousands of engaged citizen scientists. Lowlandz demonstrated how science, society and games can collaborate to create meaningful (and enjoyable) impact.
Press & publications (selection)
- NOS (Dutch national news) | link
- Omroep Flevoland | link
- ICT & Health magazine | link
- Klinkenberg et al. (2018). Een virtuele zombie-epidemie tijdens Lowlands. Infectieziekten Bulletin 2018; 29(3). | link
Credits
Games for Health team with Lowlands Science, RIVM, GGD Flevoland, GGD Amsterdam and VU Amsterdam.
