Page 115 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

middle of a forest. This type of theatre not only requires a certain amount of skill at improvising actions, but also dedication and concentration. Therefore activities of this kind are not suitable for everyone.Other games take stage plays as a basis and allow people to play inside the world of the game. Two games developed by Madrid’s Univer- sidad Complutense, La Dama Boba (2013) and La Cortesía de España (2016), are based on classical plays, the aim being to get players interestedin the original works. Elsinore, currently being developed, is inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In it the player takes on the role of Ophelia, whose visions show the tragedy that is going to occur in the castle; the mission consists in trying to change the story through decisions.Museums and exhibitionsAnother area where game design enjoys signi - cant in uence is museums and exhibitions. Here we nd that games are still generally aimed at younger visitors, and they are used as a means not only of attracting them but also of helping them understand exhibitions and encouraging them to explore and take an interest in the museum’s various shows. Games of this type sometimes involve a gymkhana or treasure hunt inside the museum so that the participants explore the space, but they do not always help them understand the contents. This is not very di erent from the problems derived from super- cial gami cation, where the player is rewarded for nding an object instead of understanding what it means – instead of using gami cationas a means of learning from exhibitions within a context.An example of the use of a gymkhana-type video game is “Enigma Galdioano”, an augmented reality game for the Museo Lázaro Galdiano aimed at families with children over 8. Inspired by the success of Pokémon Go (2016), the gameuses a pirate theme to invite visitors to search for speci c pieces from the museum’s collection, which they must capture with a telephone or iPad camera in order to access a datasheet and a series of digital mini-games.Games are still generally aimed at younger visitors, and they are used to attract them, to help them understand exhibitions and take an interest in the museum’s shows.One of the museums that are attempting to incorporate games into the museum visit is the American Museum of Natural History in New York, whose education department invests substantial sums in developing sophisticated games to get younger visitors involved. The game MicroRangers (2016) uses mobile platforms as a guide inside the museum combined with augmented reality. Players use the camera on their mobile devices to identify various museum exhibits which they must then connect to solve a biological crisis. The card game Gutsy (2016) needs no technology to show the di erent type of microbes inside our digestive system and how they interact to maintain the balance of our intestinal ora. These are two good examplesof how games can help visitors understand a museum’s complex contents.Games can also serve as a guide and moti- vation for ne arts museums. The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza already has an adventure game, Nubla (2016), inspired by the paintings housed in the museum. It functions in parallel with exhibitions, by exploring themes and evoking works rather than serving as an educa- tional brochure, and by attracting new visitors or inviting those already familiar with it to seeit in a new light. The game is not presented as something exclusively for children but as a world parallel to the museum’s work.AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2017115Smart culture. Analysis of digital trends