Revealing Hidden Local Cultural Heritage through a Serious Escape Game in Outdoor Settings

Abstract

Escape Rooms are presently considered a very popular social entertainment activity, with increasing popularity in education field, since they are considered capable of stimulating the interest of players/students and enhancing learning. The combined game mechanics have led to blended forms of Escape Rooms, the Serious Escape Games (SEGs) and the hybrid type of Escape Rooms that uses Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality technology, a type that is expected to be widely used in the future. In the current study, the MillSecret is presented, a multi-player Serious Escape Game about local cultural heritage, where the players must solve a riddle about the cultural asset of watermills. MillSecret uses AR technology and it was designed to be conducted in the real-physical environment and in an informal educational context. The paper describes the game, its implementation, the playing process, and its evaluation, which aimed to study the feasibility of game conduction in outdoor settings and the views and experience of players with the game, the local cultural heritage and local history. Evaluation results reveal, among other findings, a very positive first feedback from players that allows us to further evolve the development of the game.

Interactive Urban Play to Encourage Active Mobility: Usability Study of a Web-Based Augmented Reality Application

“…There were fewer than 100 posts related to the event and some of these were by the same participants. This study contributes to the research on play in urban spaces by examining how games contribute to social interaction, urban exploration, and community awareness (Lindqvist et al, 2018;Pang et al, 2019;Fonseca et al, 2021;Tzima et al, 2021). The online posts and number of tasks completed by the 65 participants who participated in the prize draw demonstrate that people value fun, competitive games, and rewards afforded through locative play in public spaces (Papangelis et al, 2020).…”

“…They encourage playful behavior by motivating people to discover places in their surroundings that they have not visited (Pang et al, 2019;Fonseca et al, 2021). Location-based games take place in the environment, promote citizen engagement, require exploration, and encourage physical activity (Kaczmarek et al, 2017;Broom and Flint, 2018;Pang et al, 2019;Fonseca et al, 2021;Tzima et al, 2021). However, in the same way that location-based games such as Pokémon GO lower social barriers and can be deployed to facilitate social interaction, they can also be used as a shield to avoid engagement with others in public spaces (Hjorth and Richardson, 2017).…”

“…Many location-based augmented reality games excel at the former but fail at the latter (Haahr, 2017). An example study that uses AR to retain the sense of presence in the real environment is by Tzima et al (2021). In the study, players detected hidden physical objects and digital information using an AR application to solve riddles about the local cultural heritage.…”

“…In the study, players detected hidden physical objects and digital information using an AR application to solve riddles about the local cultural heritage. The game was designed to be implemented at the physical environment and could be played only in the selected place (Tzima et al, 2021). This creates a mediated experience that is close to the natural way of perceiving the environment (Haahr, 2017).…”

“…Such community-wide interventions are effective in increasing levels of mental wellbeing among the physically inactive and in promoting increased levels of physical activity (Coombes and Jones, 2016;Harris, 2018aHarris, , 2018b. Using locative media to move through familiar surroundings can also increase the quality of fun, social interaction, and exploration (Haahr, 2017;Korhonen et al, 2017;Papangelis et al, 2020;Tzima et al, 2021). However, the impact of locative media on physical activity tends to reduce over time (Broom and Flint, 2018) and research suggests that there are limited options or increased barriers for minority populations to play (Hjorth and Richardson, 2017).…”