Decode
Wrocław
A modern outdoor city game in the heart of Wrocław. A map, custom cards and a referee app — all racing against a ticking clock. The winning team is the first to crack the Wrocław code.
Where did the idea for this outdoor city game come from?
For some it's a daily walk across Wrocław's Market Square (Rynek), the largest in Poland; for others a morning run along the Oder river and the city's 100-plus bridges; for yet others an evening rendezvous in the shadow of the townhouses and a hunt for Wrocław's famous dwarfs — the iconic bronze statuettes dotted across the city. Whether you're a born-and-bred Wrocław local or visiting for the first time, you soak up the city's vivid rhythm, green spaces and one-of-a-kind atmosphere in your own way.
And yet in the daily rush most of the details slip past us. We walk by Gothic portals, dwarf statuettes and the traces of many cultures without a second glance. The most interesting things are hiding in plain sight — we can't see the wood for the trees.
After years of designing outdoor city games we've made an art of teasing out the city secrets that intrigue, surprise and entertain our players. We turned every single one into a riddle, and the answers became the pieces of one unique code.
The City Code. The Wrocław Code.
How we designed Zakodowany Wrocław
We combined three elements: a map of Wrocław's Old Town, custom cards packed with riddles and a dedicated app — an impartial and uncompromisingly fair referee. We wrapped it all in the concept of ticking time, and a unique modern form of team-building was born — the Zakodowany Wrocław outdoor city game.
// app = referee
Map
A physical map with the Old Town clearly marked — your game arena.
Cards
Location-hinting photos on one side, mind-bending riddles on the other.
Application
The brain of the game — an impartial referee that tracks time and refreshes the leaderboard.
Breaking outdoor-city-game standards
Zakodowany Wrocław breaks the usual outdoor-game patterns. Here's what you won't find here:
You won't walk in groups with a guide doing tasks like driving nails, picking locks or slicing cabbage.
You won't hunt for people you must interact with to receive the next clue — and who subjectively decide whether you deserve it.
You won't wait at the finish line for someone to verify your answers and pick a winner — our app does all of that automatically.
Now that you know what you won't be doing — the question is, what challenge do we actually set for you? Switch on your imagination, open your minds, add a pinch of observation and dive into a game where decoding our riddles is only the beginning of the fun.
// game cards
Hiding in plain sight — our guiding idea
Our riddles are anything but obvious — they're a genuine intellectual workout, because the wording itself is a puzzle. We want you to look at Wrocław from a completely fresh, unexpected angle — one that surprises even born-and-bred Wrocław locals.
We've embraced new tech, but the riddles are crafted so that Google, Google Lens and Maps won't hand you the answer. What counts is your observation and your wit — and with every game we watch our teams' creativity with genuine curiosity.
Who's in charge and what's the goal?
The game is steered by a dedicated web application that continuously analyses how the teams are doing. Every piece of information your team finds is verified in the system on the spot. Each correct answer earns a digit — one piece of the special code that will stop your team's ticking clock. And stopping that clock is exactly the main goal.
Constant contact with the system also brings the thrill of competition — you can peek at your rivals' scores. To keep things from getting too quiet, the leaderboard refreshes every 15 minutes and freezes for the final half-hour.
The final half-hour plays out in radio silence.
How the game unfolds
The teams' main mission is to stop the clock and finish the game as fast as possible.
To do that, each team must obtain a special CODE that stops the ticking game clock.
To stop the clock, the team logs into a dedicated webpage using the CODE earned during the game.
To gather everything they need for the code, players must walk the streets of the Old Town hunting for answers. The clues come from the game cards with location-hinting photos. Once you reach the right spot, the answer is suddenly within your investigation team's reach :)
Collecting every piece of the puzzle unlocks the final decryption — calculating the CODE that lets you log in and stop the running clock. The first team to do so wins.
// investigation team
Who is the outdoor city game for?
It doesn't matter whether you're from Wrocław, Lower Silesia (Dolny Śląsk), elsewhere in Poland or anywhere in the world. If you love riddles, get hooked on crosswords and rebuses, are passionate about mysteries and treat code-breaking as a personal challenge — Zakodowany Wrocław is for you!
Companies looking for a fresh, memorable form of in-city entertainment or creative team-building play with us — and so do private groups: hen and stag parties, birthdays and surprise events. We run outdoor city games in two languages: Polish and English.
Companies
Creative team-building and a one-of-a-kind form of in-city entertainment for employees.
Private parties
Hen and stag parties, birthdays and surprise events — for when a regular party just isn't enough.
Anyone who loves puzzles
Locals and visitors, Lower Silesia and all of Poland, PL and EN — if rebuses and codes are your thing, this game is for you.
Arena: the heart of Wrocław — the Old Town
Your arena is the historic heart of Wrocław — the Old Town, home to the Market Square (Rynek), the largest in Poland. Each team gets a physical map with the play area clearly marked, and uses it to chase down the answers. Along the way you reach the Gothic Wrocław Town Hall, the colourful townhouses and the hidden dwarf statues, picking up details that locals walk past every day without noticing.
Pro tip — there's no point straying outside the marked area; every minute off-zone is a minute lost in the race for victory.
// game zone
You play when it suits you
You launch the game whenever it suits you. Choosing ZAKODOWANY WROCŁAW, you book the number of game packs you need. One pack covers a team of 3–4 — so a group of 20 needs at least 5 packs. The smaller the team, the slightly tougher the challenge :)
We meet you at the day, time and place you choose, brief the players and launch the game app. From that point you're on your own — your sharp eyes, quick thinking, time management and how well you play to each teammate's strengths will decide the win.
When the time is up we gather at the meeting point and announce the results team by team.
That's the moment we crown the winners and reward them accordingly.
Game promo video
Ready to decode Wrocław?
► Book the gameWhat does it cost?
If you're wondering about the price — just write to us or give us a call. We quote each game individually — we want to propose something that actually fits your group. Drop us a line and we'll come back with a quick, transparent offer. No commitments, no fine print. Get in touch — and let's play!
Frequently asked questions
Year-round, day or evening — and for the darker autumn–winter months we run a dedicated NIGHT edition.
There's no limit. All players are split into 4-person teams, and the number of teams is up to you.
Since teams roam the Old Town without a chaperone, players need to be old enough that local law allows them to do so unsupervised.
Briefing + searching for answers + wrap-up takes around 3 hours. Game duration is strictly defined.
Both adults and teenagers do great in our game. All you need is an open mind and a sharp eye.
Game cards are the backbone — photos of what you're looking for on one side, cryptic riddles on the other. Most photos zoom in on details so subtle that even Wrocław locals and Lower Silesia residents don't get a free pass, and the riddle text challenges every player. So yes — Zakodowany Wrocław is for visitors from anywhere in Poland or beyond. We guarantee everyone has a great time.
The game ends at a pre-arranged time and place. Even if your team doesn't crack the code, you'll reach the meeting point and see your final ranking. The game is designed around the players — it takes thinking, observation and wit. But most of all it's about fun, so we've done everything we can to give every team a taste of winning and never let anyone feel helpless along the way :)
