BRENDA Digital Tours: Designing a Gamified Augmented Reality Application to Encourage Gastronomy Tourism and Local Food Exploration

Abstract

Local food is an essential component of the appeal of a destination for those who wish to experience culinary traditions and gain deep and authentic sense of a place. Within this context, the “BRENDA: Digital Tours” research project features the development of an urban game that focuses on the gastronomic and historical exploration of the Prefecture of Kilkis in Greece. It consists of a gaming environment that supports transmedia storytelling implemented via a fully-featured scenario that enables both virtual and actual exploration, augmented reality gaming, learning of local culture, recipes, and actual food tasting in connection with real-life businesses. This serious game is designed in an adaptive and expandable manner enabling scalable deployment while the end-user is presented with both a desktop-based and portable gaming experience. Each point of interest featured consists of multimedia content and linked gaming components including quizzes and augmented-reality missions. Their completion earns players virtual coins that can be used to purchase cooking ingredients which can be used to unlock and reveal local recipes, while they advance in the classes of the game. Completion of a recipe reveals the full recipe while it offers players the choice to visit a partnered local business and taste the recipe in situ, obtaining extra gaming points.