Deeply Digging in Serious Games for Archaeology

Over the years, serious games (SGs) - the games whose main objective is not only entertainment - have become a useful tool for teaching, informing, and drawing awareness to significant research topics. A popular application domain is archaeology. Archaeology raises interest in its core activities in-volving the application of methodologies like excavations and the production of interpretations, which are crucial in reconstructing the culture of ancient civilizations. In the interpretive process, connections with anthropological and historical theories are essential, ensuring the accuracy and authenticity of hypotheses. Archaeological topics can be addressed in the diverse components of serious game architecture: game mechanics, feedback, challenges, narrative, and game setting, with similarities and differences between approaches in similar situations, giving rise to myriad solutions to engage players with archaeological findings and practices. Through a comprehensive analysis of the mapping between archaeological features and game components, the paper contributes to providing insightful information for game design and game studies. In particular, it addresses how space and time are treated in serious games for archaeology and the different roles assumed by the players while engaged in them.