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traditional methods of ludic engagement, like puzzles and scoring games, which are thematically adapted to reflect the historical content of the game.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 systematic review and meta-analysis of the Readers’ Theatre impact on the development of reading skills

Readers’ Theatre is an artistic drama-based preparation and stage presentation of theatrical scenarios method, where the reader is called to interpret dialogues effectively, in cooperation with a group of people in the form of Stage Reading. Numerous studies have been conducted in order to evaluate the didactic effectiveness of the method for the development of the students’ reading skills. The aim of the study is the systematic review and meta-analysis of bibliography from 1990 to 2020, in order to unitize the findings concerning the didactic performance of Readers’ Theatre applications in the development of students’ skills aged between 6 and 12, as well as the revelation of the fields, where research presents some deficiencies. The findings of the systematic review of 23 studies showed that Readers’ Theatre is a teaching method, which contributes positively to the development of the students’ reading skills, along with the creation of positive attitudes towards reading and the development of incentive for the learning of reading within linguistic environments of either the mother tongue or a foreign language. Moreover, based on the meta-analysis results of 11 studies with similar research hypotheses and design, it was discovered that Readers’ Theatre contributes considerably to the improvement of the students’ reading skills and has a large effect size indeed