Cultural heritage in a pocket: Case study “Turku castle in your hand”

Abstract

Turku University of Applied Sciences has provided game development education since 2009, with focus areas in entertainment games, serious games and gamification. In this paper, we will report the development of the mobile application "Turku Castle in Your Hand". The main aim of this project is to design an interactive digital platform that can be adopted to the needs of public or private institution or an event by simply changing the content while minigames would require customized solutions. The development of this application is based on the results from our work in facilitating research, knowing the needs of the industry and aim to provide decisive user experience. Our main focus in this application is to evoke new approaches in maintenance of cultural heritage by introducing new technologies and evaluating the user experience of applying this platform in diverse real-life settings. The process of developing the project has included international research exchange program, working closely with international experts both in our game lab and Middle East.