2021–2022 · Serious games· Heritage and GIS
Caravanserai board game
A board game built on GIS data of Seljuk trade routes, where players’ moves help locate lost caravanserais.
- Role
- Game design, mechanics and GIS for the board
- With
- G. Varinlioğlu, D. Tsai, T. Nagakura
- Outputs
- 1 publication
About the project
Caravans on the Silk Roads travelled 30–40 km a day and rested in inns called caravanserais. The board abstracts the real geography of south-west Anatolia — caravanserai locations, topography and accessibility — and players trade their way along the routes.
A camera tracked how players moved. Comparing their routes with historical trade routes turns the game into crowdsourced evidence for where missing caravanserais may have stood, while teaching players where the known ones are.
Publications
- 2022 · ACADIA 2022 Learning from Players: Exploring Collective Intelligence in a Cultural Heritage Board Game through Geo-Spatial and Behavior Analysis
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