A new mobile application – game Art&Fact Plovdiv reveals the treasures of Plovdiv

25.04.2024

The Municipality of Plovdiv implements project No. BGCULTURE-1.001-0016 “The cultural heritage of Plovdiv, presented in revitalized, restored and renovated places”, under the Program “Cultural entrepreneurship, heritage and cooperation” in the amount of BGN 804,616, financed by the FM of the EEA 2014- 2021. It includes 7 cultural institutions – City Art Gallery, Regional History Museum, Regional Archaeological Museum, Regional Ethnographic Museum, Regional Natural History Museum, Ivan Vazov National Library and OI “Ancient Plovdiv”. The implementation period is 22 months. The partner of Plovdiv municipality is Cross-Cultural Introduction AS (CC-Intro AS) from Norway.

The project includes improving the conditions and quality of presentation of the rich cultural heritage of Plovdiv Municipality through renovation and application of interactive methods in the 7 cultural institutions within the city. The implemented activities stimulate a wider interest in cultural heritage and include: renovation and revitalization of premises; purchase of showcases for the permanent exhibitions and equipment for interactive presentation of the exhibits; development of a mobile application – a type of quest game, including an audio guide, which presents the buildings, halls and part of the exhibits of the cultural institutes in an intriguing way for the visitors. At the end of the project, the mobile application – a game called ART&FACT PLOVDIV will be presented. It is bilingual – in Bulgarian and English languages.

The Art&Fact Plovdiv mobile application is a quest type game. Its main goal is to attract more young people to visit the cultural institutes of Plovdiv, to arouse interest in the cultural heritage of the city among Bulgarian and foreign tourists, as well as to make the visitors’ experience inside the expositions more interesting and fascinating. Using a mobile application with augmented/augmented reality, the various target audiences, instead of just seeing information, will have the opportunity to interact with it – hear an interesting story, look for “treasures”, learn more about Plovdiv, view exhibits in detail, to arrange a three-dimensional puzzle, have fun playing a game, as well as take a virtual part of Plovdiv home in their “digital” backpack, and finally win a prize. The mobile application takes us to a virtual Plovdiv, and our host in it is the sienna man Fili, who lives in one of the Plovdiv hills. He is the oldest resident of Plovdiv and knows everything about the city. Fili welcomes us, guides us, tells us interesting facts and finally, if we complete all the tasks, he gives us a reward.

In the virtual Plovdiv, the cultural institutes – RIM, RAM, REM, RPNM, GHG, OI Starinen Plovdiv and NBIV, are called “treasures”, and the experts in them are their “guardians”. The player’s goal is to reveal their secrets and find more “treasures” – knowledge about Plovdiv, to put in his backpack to take with him. The application includes 141 exhibits, of which 121 are augmented reality and 20 are 3D models. They are located in a total of 12 buildings. The purpose of the developed application is to increase attendance at cultural institutes and, accordingly, to increase income from entrance fees. To stimulate interest in installation, 2 reward options are provided – a big reward (if the user manages to go around all the sites, discover all the exhibits and answer the challenges set in 3 days), a small reward (if the user manages to go around all the sites, discover all exhibits and answers to the set challenges for 2 months), with the option of simply using the game as a guide and interactive viewing of the exhibits, as well as restarting the game time.

The mobile application of the project is not an independent element, but part of the digital tools and channels that will sustainably fulfill the goals of the project “The cultural heritage of Plovdiv, presented in revitalized, restored and renovated places” – a 10% increase in revenues and an increase of 20 % of visitors to cultural institutes.

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