This guide consolidates everything useful about Goosechase - from the public website and pricing pages to the Goosechase Studio admin panel - so you can discover how the product works in one place, and compare it fairly with PlayTours where the differences matter.
It is written as a practical reference: Experience setup, Missions, Broadcasts, Branding, Publish/Review tools, Free vs paid pricing, and education plans, with Studio screenshots throughout.
Goosechase is a scavenger hunt and experiential learning platform. Organisers build Experiences (the full event) made of Missions (individual tasks). Participants join on the Goosechase mobile app for iOS or Android, including Chromebooks, using a join link, QR code, or join code.
The creator side runs in Goosechase Studio at studio.goosechase.com. Studio follows a three-stage workflow: Create, Publish, and Review.
Goosechase is popular for corporate team building, campus events, K-12 classrooms, fundraisers, and community activations. It emphasises photo and video missions, a social activity feed, templates, and (more recently) AI-assisted mission writing.
PlayTours note: PlayTours is browser-first. Participants open a link or QR code in any modern browser. No App Store or Google Play install is required, which removes a common blocker on work phones and guest devices.
After login, Studio shows your workspace (for example Personal), with sidebar links for Experiences, Plan, and Settings.
The Experiences list supports Created by me and Shared with me, cards for each Experience (status such as ENDED, dates, duration), and a Create Experience button. A welcome strip may point to getting started, the Template Library, and Goose merchandise.
An upgrade banner is often visible on free or limited plans, pushing larger participant caps and multiple live Experiences.
On the Plan page, the Recreational (Free) tier is labelled clearly. In Studio it shows limits such as up to 3 teams and 1 live Experience. Billing is managed via an external billing portal.
Goosechase's public pricing FAQ also states that the free version allows up to 3 participants per Experience, one Experience at a time, and up to 24 hours duration.
PlayTours note: PlayTours Free allows up to 25 concurrent active devices, unlimited total devices, full features, and commercial use (with a PlayTours watermark). You are not capped at 3 players or a 24-hour run window on the free tier.
Workspace Settings include the workspace name and an Enable AI Features toggle. When enabled, Goosechase states that Experience titles, descriptions, and Mission content may be sent securely to OpenAI; participant data and submissions are not shared; and data is not used to train AI models. You can turn this off at any time.
Inside an Experience, Create mode has four left-nav sections: Details, Missions, Broadcasts, and Branding. An invite link is always available in the sidebar.
Key Details fields:
PlayTours note: PlayTours game descriptions and task copy are not constrained to a 200-character Experience blurb. You can write fuller welcome text and instructions without that Studio cap.
Missions are the tasks players complete for points. You can Browse Library (previous/saved missions) or Add a Mission. Mission order for participants can be by point value, alphabetical, random per team, or custom drag-and-drop.
When adding a mission, Studio exposes three primary types:
Each mission has a name (up to 100 characters), points, description (up to 2,000 characters), optional image, and optional external link.
PlayTours note: PlayTours supports a much wider task catalogue (QR/barcode, multiple choice, judged photo/video, GPS trails, poker run, and more). If your event needs more than camera, text, and GPS check-ins, PlayTours is usually the better fit.
Under Availability you can control when a mission appears and disappears:
This gating is one of Goosechase's stronger organiser controls for multi-day Experiences and progressive unlocks.
Mission Settings include:
Camera missions complete when media is submitted. Organisers can later adjust scores from the Leaderboard if something looks wrong. That is cleanup after points land, not a gate that blocks points until a human approves the media.
PlayTours note: PlayTours judged image/video tasks can require organiser (or AI) approval before points stick. That is useful when prizes, public leaderboards, or brand safety matter and you do not want bad uploads to score instantly.
Studio includes an AI Mission Generator chat. You describe vibe and audience; it proposes titled missions with point values (for example office supply art, teamwork tower, cubicle critter). Clicking a suggestion can auto-fill the mission form with name, type, points, and description. This is a genuine Goosechase strength for fast brainstorming, especially when AI Features are enabled in Settings.
What you get is a set of individual mission ideas, usually text-only. You still assemble the Experience yourself: structure, settings, ordering, and any images. Goosechase AI, as shown in Studio today, stays in the creation phase. Once the Experience is live, reviewing submissions remains a manual organiser job (or later score adjustments).
PlayTours note: PlayTours treats AI as part of the full workflow, not only a mission brainstormer. QuickBuild asks about the shape of the whole event (audience, indoor/outdoor, how answers are checked, task mix, visual style), then generates a playable draft with chapters, mixed task types, point values, welcome copy, and supporting images pulled automatically from licensed photo sources. During the live event, Text AI and Judged Image AI can validate answers and photos against prompts you write, so organisers spend less time in a submission queue. In short: Goosechase AI helps you fill mission forms faster; PlayTours AI can take you from a blank page to a ready-to-play event, then keep judging during play. Full walkthrough: GooseChase vs PlayTours: how each platform uses AI.
Broadcasts are messages to participants during an Experience. They deliver to people with notifications enabled and also appear in the Goosechase app.
When composing a broadcast you can:
PlayTours note: PlayTours also supports facilitator messaging and live event control from the admin side. Pair that with browser play if your audience cannot install apps to receive Goosechase push-style broadcasts.
Branding options in Studio include:
PlayTours note: Paid PlayTours plans remove the PlayTours watermark and support organiser branding for a cleaner white-label feel. Free PlayTours still includes full mechanics with the watermark present.
Publish focuses on how people join and how they are organised.
Invite options:
Organisation modes:
You can set a max team size (or Unlimited). On the free plan, Studio shows a yellow notice: up to 3 teams or 3 individual participants per Experience.
PlayTours note: Joining PlayTours is a browser URL or QR with no app install. Free capacity is measured in concurrent active devices (up to 25), which is a different (and usually more generous) model than Goosechase's free 3-participant / 3-team cap.
Review is where you monitor and close out an Experience.
Leaderboard visibility can be:
Adjust Scores lets you add or subtract points with an optional reason and a View history audit trail. This is how organisers correct photo missions after the fact.
PlayTours note: Score adjustments exist in both products. PlayTours also offers judged tasks so you can prevent bad submissions from scoring in the first place, instead of relying only on after-the-fact cleanup.
Goosechase sells Single Events (one-time Experiences) and Subscriptions (better for orgs running many Experiences). Education and non-profit tracks are separate.
All Single Event Experiences include multiple mission types, real-time activity feed, leaderboard and rewards, analytics, and the template library. Constraints called out on the pricing card:
Participant tiers observed on goosechase.com/pricing (USD, one-time) include examples such as:
Exact tiers on the live pricing page can change; always re-check Goosechase's site before budgeting.
Subscription highlights from the public page:
PlayTours note: PlayTours prices by concurrent active devices, not per Experience or per participant seat. Free covers 25 concurrent devices. Paid plans start around $35/month with all features included (no feature gating). For many one-off corporate or campus events, PlayTours is dramatically cheaper than a $299-$749 single Experience or a $9,999 department subscription.
Verified K-12 schools get a dedicated track:
Goosechase markets FERPA, COPPA, GDPR alignment, SDPC/Digital Promise badges, and signed NDPAs with many districts. That education compliance story is a real Goosechase strength.
PlayTours note: PlayTours is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR-oriented, which matters for corporates and many universities. If your primary buyer is a K-12 district that needs Goosechase's NDPA/FERPA packaging, Goosechase may still win on procurement paperwork even when PlayTours wins on price and browser access.
Yes. Goosechase states Experiences are joined using the Goosechase app on iOS or Android (including Chromebooks), via join link, code, or QR.
An Experience is the full event. Missions are the individual tasks inside it that earn points.
Roughly 3 participants (or 3 teams in Studio messaging), 1 live Experience at a time, short free duration, templates, feed, scoring, messaging, and submission downloads. Confirm current limits on Goosechase pricing before you plan a live event.
Yes, via Leaderboard score adjustments and bonus/point history. Points typically land on submit first; cleanup happens afterward.
Choose PlayTours when you need no app download, a usable free commercial tier, concurrent-device pricing, richer task types, or judged media before points. Choose Goosechase when your audience happily installs the app, you want their template/AI workflow, or K-12 procurement requires their education packaging.
