Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

This paper presents the Augmented Reality Audio Game (ARAG) "Mystic Isle: in search of the golden lyre", which focuses on the exploration of the cultural heritage of Corfu. It was developed as the author's MA dissertation under the co-author's supervision for the Postgraduate Program "Arts and Technologies of Sound" offered jointly by the Department of Music Studies and the Department of Audiovisual Arts of the Ionian University. The game employs geolocation technology on players' mobile phones to trigger appropriate audio stimuli along a predefined path of historical points of interest (POIs). Throughout the game, players interact with significant historical figures who provide various insights into the unfolding narrative intertwined with information on themselves and historical landmarks. To witness the audio events players need to be not only in specific places, but also at specific times. Thus, the common Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) practice of utilizing space as a gameplay element is combined with a novel approach of including time as a decisive factor as well. Last, the general music context mirrors a medieval setting enriched with fantasy elements. This paper focuses on describing the design process in terms of creating the storyline, composing the audio content, and shaping the game's audio-based mechanics.