How Districts works, a city game with GPSJak działa Districts, gra miejska z GPS

What is the game of Districts about?

Districts combines an outdoor game with real activity. Instead of a board or a virtual world you have the map of your city, and instead of pieces you have your own legs or a bike. You start a session with the START button and finish it with STOP, and everything in between is recorded as a route. The goal is territory: you capture it, defend it against other players and take it back when someone takes it from you.

Districts is not a fitness app. Moving is a game mechanic, not a goal in itself: what counts is whose territory it is, who leads the leaderboard and who owns the neighbourhood.

How does capturing territory work?

Capturing territory is based on the loop. During a session the app records the GPS trace and draws it on the map. When the route comes back near the starting point, the loop closes, and the area inside it is calculated and saved as your territory. The shape is validated by the server, not by the phone, so everyone plays by the same rules.

The loop does not have to close to the metre. The game allows up to 20 metres between the end and the start of the route, which covers the usual GPS inaccuracy between buildings or trees.

There is no upper limit on the captured area: you take exactly as much as you really loop around, from a backyard to a whole park. For the first captured territory the account gets 30 XP and 30 DC, and the game permanently remembers the first person to capture each area.

Walk, Run and Ride: three separate map layers

You pick the activity before you start a session. Districts works as a game for walking the dog, a game for running in the park and a game for riding around the neighbourhood, because each of these activities has its own separate map layer. The same square has three owners at once: one in the Walk layer, a second in the Run layer and a third in the Ride layer. A runner does not take territory from a walker, and a rider cannot wipe out the work of people on foot with one big loop.

Each activity also has its own kilometre leaderboard settled every month, so you compete with people who move the way you do. Alongside it there is an overall leaderboard, where kilometres from different activities are converted into common points.

How many points do you get per kilometre?

Experience points, XP, come from two sources: kilometres and captured territory. The rate per kilometre depends on the activity, and a daily cap makes sure that no activity gives an unlimited advantage.

For captured territory you get XP depending on the area, capped at 1000 XP for a single capture. Taking your own area back pays half as much again, capped at 1500 XP. On top of that come rewards for holding territory: 50 XP after 7 days, 150 XP after 30 days and 300 XP after 90 days. The XP you collect translates into profile levels and your leaderboard position.

When do you lose territory and how does taking it back work?

Territory is not assigned forever. If another player loops around your area in the same activity layer, they capture it and you get a notification. Losing territory is a normal part of gameplay, described directly in the game terms, and it is not an app error.

From the moment you lose it you have 48 hours to take it back. You reclaim exactly as much as you loop around: you can take the whole area back with one big loop or carve it out piece by piece over several sessions.

What are Districts Coins?

Districts Coins, DC for short, is the virtual coin of the game. You earn it for milestones, tasks, level ups, zone placements and chests. You spend it on cosmetics: skins, colours and avatar appearance items. DC works only inside the game, has no monetary value and cannot be exchanged for money, as described in the terms.

The coin economy has hard caps: at most 200 DC per day and 1200 DC per week from the basic sources. Buying an advantage is prohibited in Districts by design, so in game items do not increase your territory capturing power.

Chests and Districts Zones on the city map

The city map in Districts is not only player territories. It also holds chests and zones, two additions that reward moving beyond your own backyard.

Where this works: capturing territory, routes and XP work anywhere in the world. Zones, chests and the Mayor are set up in Poland for now, so outside Poland you will not find them on the map yet.

11,111 chests are scattered across Poland, also outside the big cities. You get a chest by capturing the territory it sits on, and once collected it disappears from the map forever. The pool is finite, so first come, first served.

Common, 7000 chests

10 DC and 20 XP.

Rare, 3000 chests

25 DC, 50 XP and an avatar item.

Epic, 1111 chests

50 DC, 100 XP and a rare item.

Districts Zones are areas with real boundaries: market squares, parks, boulevards or the area around a station. A zone cannot be captured. Instead you rack up points there with kilometres of activity and fight for a place in the weekly zone leaderboard, and the top three get XP and DC rewards. Once a week one city in Poland also gets a Golden Zone with higher rewards, and in selected zones the Mayor appears, a game element that triggers a temporary points bonus.

Fair play: how does Districts check sessions?

A game for real territory only makes sense if nobody drives the loop by car or fakes their GPS. That is why every session is validated on the server: the system analyses speed, the consistency of the trace and signals from motion sensors. A session with anomalies can be held for review or rejected.

The rules are friendly to players: a serious sanction such as a permanent account block is never decided by automation alone, and any decision about a session or a result can be sent for review at contact@districts.pl. The full list of prohibited moves, from location spoofing to creating multiple accounts, is in the terms.

What do other players see, and what stays private?

Districts records precise location only during a session that you start yourself. Outside an active session the app does not record a continuous route trace.

Other players see your nickname, avatar, level, leaderboard position and the shape of your captured territory. They do not see the raw GPS trace or your current position. Raw GPS samples from finished sessions are deleted after 30 days, and the main game database runs on servers in the European Union. The app contains no ads, and player data is not sold or used for behavioural advertising. The details are in the privacy policy. It is worth remembering that the shape of a territory alone can reveal the area where you spend time, so it is better to close your first loop a little away from your own door.

Who makes Districts?

Districts is a Polish game, run under its own brand by Adrian Kominek; the full details of the service provider are in the terms. The game is made in Silesia, and the first city where loop closing was tested was Rybnik. A small team works on the app, sharing the development of the game and its promotion.

The game launched on the App Store and Google Play on 22 August 2026 and is being developed continuously. Questions about the game, an account or working together can be sent to contact@districts.pl.