A serious heritage game for art history: Design and evaluation of ThIATRO

New methods of presenting the artifacts of our cultural heritage are developing in a changing world, and professionals need to adapt to these changes. This also calls for new ways of raising the interest of children and young adults in their cultural heritage because they are next in line to carry out high-quality preservation efforts. Serious games have been proven to be a source of enjoyment and, if well-made, are a powerful tool to communicate knowledge. We can see that the use of serious games to support cultural heritage purposes has received less attention in research. To fill this gap our paper investigates the usage of serious games for cultural issues. We developed the online serious game ThIATRO that immerses the player into an exhibition and helps students learn about art history. Its playful approach not only increases motivation to learn but also raises interest in art history and cultural heritage in general. We provide an overview of our design ideas and summarize the results of evaluations conducted with a group of 14-year-old pupils in classroom environment.