I am part of a team designing an Alternate Reality Game. I am trying to assess if one of our ideas is feasible, and I would very much appreciate the advice from you experts here at SO.
Here is the idea: we want people to gather at a specific location, where a WiFi access point is broadcast. Once people connect to this point, they can have access to a page displaying how many other people are connected to this WiFi access point, and how many more should connect in order to progress in the game. Thus they can call friends for help and bring more people there. Once a specific amount of simultaneously connected users is reached, the game goes on.
We are trying to design this system so that it does not require an Internet connection. I am imagining several components:
- a laptop with a WiFi network card broadcasting an open WiFi access point
- a server application running on the laptop, monitoring and saving how many devices are currently connected to the access point
- a captive portal (no authentication needed) redirecting to a local "webapp"
- a local "webapp" displaying how many devices are currently connected to the access point (it would retrieve this information from the server application somehow)
First question: does this seam feasible?
Now I'm trying to imagine the use-case for a user with a smartphone with its own internet connection. Supposing that the WiFi access point is in reach, and the smartphone connects to it. The user then enters an URL (probably an IP Address?)
Second question: Won't the smartphone lookup for the IP address on the 3G data connection rathan than on the WiFi access point network?
(I have looked for similar questions and it seems that a simpler method would be to create an app looking for instances of itself on the network, although that solution would require us to develop native apps for smartphones. A simpler "webapp" would be cross-platform and would also support computers and other wifi devices.)
Thanks for any advice :)
