The Umbrian Chronicles is the new video game for smartphones and tablets developed by Entertainment Game Apps, Ltd. as part of the Museum Connections: between valleys and mountains, villages and cities project of the Umbria Region, to enhance the cultural and environmental heritage of 11 museums located in 5 municipalities in the territory of Spoleto and Valnerina.

The Umbrian Chronicles is a narrative video game that follows the story of the protagonist, Ponzia: arrived in Spoleto to write an article on the local cultural life, she will visit museums, meet historical characters, and learn about myths and legends, eventually finding out that those very places hide her family roots.

Thanks to the collaboration with the cultural association Italian Videogame Program, research and inspections about the 11 museums and 5 Umbrian municipalities involved in the project, and other places of interest, were carried out:

• Spoleto: Collicola Palace, Roman House, Textile and Costume Museum, Museum of the Old Spoleto-Norcia Railway, Mining Museum, MUST (Museum of Territorial Sciences) – Earth Sciences Laboratory, Rocca Albornoziana (National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto), National Archaeological Museum and Roman Theater, Basilica of San Salvatore and Monumental Cemetery;
• Cerreto di Spoleto: Museum of Mummies, CEDRAV (Museum of the Ciarlatano);
• Monteleone di Spoleto: Museum of the Biga, ruins of the Monastery of Santa Caterina;
• Sant’Anatolia di Narco: Museum of Hemp, Abbey of Saints Felice and Mauro, Piano delle Melette
• Vallo di Nera: House of Tales, Church of Santa Maria Assunta.

“For EGA, it is a unique opportunity to enhance museums that are so different from each other, without a clear topic fil-rouge. From a narrative and technological point of view, we keep improving at a high pace. Considering the little time required by the tender, this proved to be an interesting all-round project“, comments Maurizio Amoroso – CEO of Entertainment Game Apps.

Thanks to the collected materials, The Umbrian Chronicles‘ plot is based on the most relevant historical and cultural information. The game setting, instead, sees as highlights the main sites in the municipalities involved: with a low poly aesthetic able to make them, in a stylized but realistic way, immediately recognizable to the player, 3D models of the buildings have been reproduced. In this way, the video game becomes a didactic tool that can be used both on-site and off-site, that is, outside the museum.

The Umbrian Chronicles is proposed to the young generations as a playful and educational tool aiming at enhancing the territory of Spoleto and Valnerina. For this purpose, Entertainment Game Apps has launched a specific monitoring activity, by submitting two questionnaires to the local lower secondary schools: the first survey attests to the students’ pregresse knowledge of the local cultural heritage, before the release of the video-game, while the second one will try to verify the actual impact of The Umbrian Chronicles on their learning approaches to cultural heritage and their achievements. 

Another new feature of the project has been the collaboration with the Twitch Channel The Witch’s Shop, whose weekly streaming shows offered a preview of the progress of the video-game development.