The Heritage Game Mobile App Launch and Presentation by the University of South Bohemia – 26 March 2026
The Heritage Game — Official presentation of the application
On 26 March 2026, the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (USB) hosted the public presentation of the mobile application developed under the Heritage Game Erasmus+ partnership (Project No. 2023-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000154261). The session brought together regional museums, accommodation providers and cultural institutions involved in the Czech roll-out of the project.
The programme followed the deck shown to participants during the live session: an introduction to THEODEN, the tool created in the project to design location-based games, plus a roadmap for students, communities and heritage organisations.
Online session etiquette: attendees were asked to set their display name to First name, Surname — Country, matching the guidance shown at the start of the webinar.
Today’s focus
The Czech team presented one of the project’s flagship outputs: THEODEN — “Tool for Hot EnvirOnment upDatE and gamificatioN” — which turns the Unity editor into an accessible environment for building location-based heritage experiences.
What is THEODEN?
THEODEN is a tool for developing location-based games (LBGs). The aim is to let everyone build their own LBG — from museums and municipalities to educators and community curators — without having to master game programming from scratch.
Why use THEODEN?
THEODEN combines the power of Unity with a simplified, user-oriented interface so authors can concentrate on story, places of interest and learning goals instead of low-level engine work.
Who should use THEODEN?
- Museums and galleries
- Local communities and civic heritage initiatives
- Cultural-heritage organisations and educational partners
- …and other actors who want to put places on the map through playful discovery
How THEODEN works
The presentation walked participants through the six-step workflow also shown in the slide overview:
- Write down your ideas
- Open Unity and use THEODEN
- Add your points of interest using the editor
- Configure the app using the project user guide
- Build your app
- Publish your app
Two sides: authors and players
As in the presentation, THEODEN is described as having two complementary sides: one for people who author the experience, and one for people who explore it outdoors on a device.
Authoring environment
The project team adapts the Unity editor into a more approachable workspace. In a guided workflow, authors prepare the game and publish it when ready.
Player experience
Games built with THEODEN are designed to be simple, clear and effective: visitors discover cultural heritage in the landscape through intuitive, playful interaction.
THEODEN in action
The live session included a walk-through of how the tool behaves in practice when authors connect media, locations and narrative beats — aligning with the “THEODEN in Action” segment of the PDF deck.
Looking ahead
The roadmap shared with stakeholders includes (among other items):
- iOS version of THEODEN
- New challenges and difficulty settings
- Additional media types
- Further enhancements to be announced as the project matures
The Czech partner team thanked all participants for joining and reiterated the consortium’s commitment to open, community-centred heritage experiences.
Thank you for your attention.
The project No. 2023-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000154261 “A gamification model for community-based heritage work” is funded by the European Union.