What’s in a Name: Gamifying the Intangible History of Larochette, Luxembourg

The Larochette app is part of a larger interdisciplinary project to create a digital reconstruction of the town and castle of Larochette, Luxembourg. The paper discusses the creation of an app that serves to pique interest in linguistics and historical geography, traditionally dry subjects with little intrinsic appeal to children and the general public. This project harnesses this effect, presenting the results of the preceding landscape study in an interactive educational environment that rewards the user for engaging with the content. As the app allows natural movement and intuitive interaction, exploration and learning are prompted by curiosity. The goal of connecting place names to heritage is not explicitly stated, nor is it presented as an educational game. In short, this is the second phase of a collaborative case study in the digital experience of history, which is grounded in user experience design and informed by the historical and architectural expertise of the collaborators

Chapter Optimising 3D interactive exploration of open virtual enviroments on web, using mobile devices

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

Influence of adaptability of Serious Games on learning outcomes and the application of knowledge and skills in professional training

Serious Games have been used in professional training to increase employee engagement and improve the results of training initiatives in this context. This work intends to investigate the influence of game elements, in adaptable Serious Games, according to the users\u27 interactions, in the increase of engagement in the game itself and, as the main objective, in the learning outcomes and the transfer of the acquired knowledge and practised skills to activities in the daily work. Using the Design Science Research methodology, this study is intended to develop a framework for the development and evaluation of Serious Games to improve the user experience, the learning outcomes, the transfer of knowledge to work situations, and the application of skills practised in the game in real professional scenarios

Reliving the experience of visiting a gallery : methods for evaluating informal learning in games for cultural heritage

When evaluating the effectiveness of gamified app experiences in cultural heritage venues in terms of informal learning outcomes, a core challenge is the complexity involved in assessing intangible measures such as visitors’ appraisal of artwork. A comprehensive summary of the literature for conducting museum visitor evaluations is needed in order to understand how to measure the impact of gamification on user engagement, and the enhancement of the cultural heritage experience on learning. This paper first reviews related literature regarding the application of intrusive versus nonintrusive user evaluation methods, focusing on the REMIND protocol for conducting experiments with museum visitors. We relay our findings when applying the REMIND protocol in four gamified cultural heritage applications in the CrossCult project. Focusing on the assessment of informal learning in an application specifically designed for the visitors of the National Gallery of London, the paper concludes with recommendations, challenges, and future steps in evaluating games for cultural heritage.peer-reviewe

Valletta : Streets of History : documenting the process of developing a location-based game in the area of Maltese history and culture

Playing Maltese History is a project funded by Malta Arts Council involving the research for and development of a mobile AR game about the cultural history of Malta titled Valletta: Streets of History (Bewitched Mitches 2023), officially released in March of this year. As a concept, it was conceived in an effort to bridge the gap between historical research and detective games; or rather to make the profound connections between the two practices explicit. The design of the game attempts to simulate the process of conducting archival research by situating the player in the role of a detective-historian who unearths details from Maltese history and culture, which are not generally foregrounded in the textbooks. The game invites the player to trace these events in actual locations by means of geolocation mechanics and AR elements. It additionally employs more traditional methods of ludic engagement, like puzzles and scoring games, which are thematically adapted to reflect the historical content of the game. In this paper, the development team first analyses the research supporting the project by highlighting the affinities between historical research and detective games. In the second part, we document the process of development from conceptualisation and funding application to research and implementation up to dissemination. In this, we aim to contribute to the theoretical discussion around game design methods and approaches, especially within the context of historical games, as well as providing a practical example of game development and distribution for other interested game designers and academics.peer-reviewe

A Framework to design, develop, and evaluate Immersive and Collaborative Serious Games in Cultural Heritage

Video games and their design are complex in nature, given the variety of aspects and challenges to face and the different areas of expertise involved. Furthermore, serious games have an even tougher challenge, since the knowledge acquisition has the same importance and relevance as entertainment and pleasure for the players. Serious games in cultural heritage require additional effort to introduce immersivity and collaboration among players. This article introduces a framework, named FRACH, to conceive, design, and evaluate immersive and collaborative serious games in cultural heritage. In particular, FRACH provides a design framework with steps to follow during the whole process that is from the early design phase to the evaluation phase of a serious game. We assessed the efficacy of our framework, with a specific case study in cultural heritage, by implementing a section of a serious game named HippocraticaCivitasGame , where players were allowed to visit the thermae of the historical site of San Pietro a Corte and Palazzo Fruscione in the city of Salerno, Italy, and to solve a given puzzle. Results of the game evaluation showed that the game was effective in terms of knowledge acquisition, the participants enjoyed the game, were highly involved in the immersive experience, and, finally, positively rated the idea of using the game for educational learning in the field of cultural heritage. </jats:p

Trends and features of virtual reality: a literature review between 2017 and 2018

Virtual Reality has greatly evolved since the 1960´s to the present. It has been implemented in multiple research and knowledge areas, the most recognized being the entertainment industry. In order to establish the state of Virtual Reality and get an idea of its prospects, 537 scientific documents have been reviewed, applying search criteria, more specifically, Virtual Reality applied to education. A bibliometric analysis was realized based on summarizing each document, as well as its keywords and trends, then proceeding to categorize each one, according to the field of application. It was found that Virtual Reality is having relevance in medicine and training area, due to the ability to simulate difficult situations and above all, specific conditions raised by instructors. The future of Virtual Reality as a tool to train professionals in multiples areas is promising.La realidad virtual ha tenido una gran evolución desde la década de 1960 hasta el día de hoy. Se ha implementado en múltiples áreas, tanto de la investigación como del conocimiento, siendo más reconocida en la industria del entretenimiento. Con el propósito de establecer el estado de la realidad virtual y obtener una idea de su futuro, 537 documentos científicos han sido revisados aplicando criterios de búsqueda específicos, como realidad virtual aplicada a la educación. Un análisis bibliométrico fue realizado, teniendo como base un resumen y descripción de cada artículo, así como sus palabras claves y tendencias, procediendo a categorizar cada documento de acuerdo con su campo de aplicación. Se encontró que la realidad virtual tiene una gran relevancia en la medicina, industria militar y en el entrenamiento de personas, debido a su capacidad de simular situaciones difíciles y, sobre todo, condiciones específicas requeridas por instructores. El futuro de la realidad virtual como herramienta de entrenamiento para los profesionales de múltiples áreas es promisori