Virtual Rangers founder and CEO Matthieu Bracchetti had already been developing a prototype game when the news hit that national day celebrations would be cancelled because of the pandemic. “We decided to speed up production,” he told Delano at the end of April. The idea for “Lux Runner” emerged as a potential solution to the fact that people are unable to meet en masse because of the pandemic health measures. “We’re working on the principle that right now people need to be distracted,” the entrepreneur said.
The game features well-known Luxembourg landmarks and includes challenges and prizes to win. Bracchetti reckons that it will be the first Luxembourg video game to come out. And he is confident that it will capture the public imagination as it proved popular during trials at the last student fair. He plans to launch different challenges and contests to coincide with key dates in the Luxembourg calendar, like the Schuberfouer.
The project was supported by BIL but Bracchetti says 11 companies will join in the coming weeks. The Beta version of Lux Runner is already live. The final version will launch on Monday 21 June at the same time as the national holiday contest.
The application can be downloaded online on:
Virtual Rangers was one of 20 startups to be selected to represent Luxembourg at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Bracchetti plans to return to the US in June to pitch two projects to the American market. Among other things, the Virtual Rangers founder plans to benefit from a new programme in collaboration with the Gener8tor startup accelerator in Wisconsin.
