PAC-PAC

Point-and-Click for Environmental and Cultural Heritage. The project is about a tool for supporting end-users in the development of point-and-click videogames based on 360 degrees videos. It aims specifically at people without previous experience in game development and coding. Users can easily create scenes, add simple objects such as transitions or switches, connect scenes to each other and define the game rules. The tool is developed as a part of PAC-PAC, a project for promoting cultural and environmental heritage through videogames.

The project has been funded by Sardegna Ricerche started in 2017 and it was finished in April 2021.

More information is available in the project website.

Outline

1. Project Description
2. Demo Video
3. The Interface
4. Sample Gameplay
5. Companies Involved
6. Contacts

Project Description

The project is about a tool for supporting end-users in the development of point-and-click videogames based on 360 degrees videos. It aims specifically at people without previous experience in game development and coding. Users can easily create scenes, add simple objects such as transitions or switches, connect scenes to each other and define the game rules. The tool is developed as a part of PAC-PAC, a project for promoting cultural and environmental heritage through videogames.

Demo video

In the demo, the user creates a new game, then adds some scenes; in fact a Pac Pac game is defined by connected scenes representing the game levels. A scene consists of a 360° photo/video taken from the asset collection, the objects added by the user and a set of rules that directs their behaviour.

After the user has set up the environment (according to his will), he can enter into play mode and try the game

The interface

The authoring tool supports three main features: 1) creating a scene, 2) inserting interactive objects into a scene, 3) defining the behaviour of a scene. It represents a game as a graph of 360o video nodes (scenes), connected by arcs implementing the transition from a location to another. The interface for editing the game recalls familiar multimedia content editing applications, such as MS PowerPoint.

Sample Gameplay: “Fratelli Rivali”

Companies involved

• Tourist Consortium “l’altra Sardegna”
• Tourist Consortium archipelago of Tavolara
• Organization for the development and protection of technology, art and culture
• Mommotty
• Indòru
• Teravista
• Sky Survey system
• Inoke
• Inside Sardinia
• Mask Museum soc. coop.
• Sardinia Foundation “Film Commission”
• Italian Videogame Program (IVIPRO)
• Space s.p.a.
• Net-Press
• Foodrink srls
• Viseras
• The municipality of Carbonia

Contacts

• Ivan Blečić: Scientific coordinator (ivanblecic@unica.it)
• Davide Spano: Development Manager (davide.spano@unica.it)
• Dario Carbini: Sardegna Ricerca responsible (ecarbini@sardegnaricerche.it)