ARKEOSYSMÄ
The problem.
While I have been visiting cities and villages in municipality I have been living, I have noticed that the access to knowledge about history and archaeology there is very limited. Museums are often closed, or a phone call few days before is needed to be able to get to the museum. Even if like in Sysmä, people can see a map with marked archaeological sites (Figure 1 ), the usability of this map is almost not existing. Not good enough ways to communicate local cultural landscape and archaeological richness of Sysmä is the biggest problem in showing and educating local people.
The need.
Living on a rural area on every part of the world might be challenging. Beautiful views and access to forests is a great advance. There are also disadvantages. One of them, is limited access to ev
ents, museums and galleries, to which people need to drive much longer. Now in the time of pandemic of Covid-19, visiting museum might be even more hard or impossible. While we are facing all the rest
rictions, the need of outdoor activity, learning, doing something actively, participating in something is still actual. People who are not interesting in sports activities nowadays have much less opportunities to participate in some outdoor activity connected with culture. Those who live in rural areas feels that this situation is even harder.
There is no one good solution for those problems in a global way. There are possibilities to make it work on local basics. There is a need to create a solution which will help local community to educate and showcase their cultural landscape.
Sysmä has small museum, where a visitor need to call in advance, there have been reconstructed two Iron Age buildings, the map has been created and placed near the church in visible spot. This means that local
community has a need to educate themselves, become proud of the historical and archaeological heritage.
The goal.
The goal of this project is to create a game which can be played by individuals, families and even school
s in a form of treasure hunt. Locations, information, illustrations found by users will create a type of outdoor virtual museum for everyone.
The research.
Before starting creating further concept of the game, especially when it is educational game everyone should make a research. This is a research of the prehistory of Sysmä and Päijät-Häme.
GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
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