Three Gods in Eleusis: Discovering Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ancient Eleusis

The present study concerns the design and implementation of a serious game for the on-site and remote promotion and dissemination of knowledge regarding the mythology of ancient Eleusis in an interactive, fun and educational way. Specifically, while playing, the user discovers artifacts exhibited in the archaeological museum and related to the archaeological site of Eleusis, unfolding the content of the myth of Persephone. The story takes place in a realistic three-dimensional virtual environment that simulates the Archaeological Museum of Eleusis. The selected archaeological artifacts, in combination with the narration of the myth of Persephone, transfer the knowledge about the historicity of the place in an experientially playful way. The main purpose of the study is to introduce a novel, interactive playful narrative digital museum experience, in which the user is guided through a mechanism to simultaneously acquire knowledge both for the intangible and tangible heritage of a site with significant historical value. The evolution of the scenario (story) is dynamic and based on the choices of the user. The content (text etc.) of the system is presented through a dynamic multilingual approach, which offers the management of multiple different languages and personalized content based on the target group. The system relies on cross-platform technologies to cover a wide range of users.