Serious Gaming for Cultural Heritage: The Case Study of the Domus of Abellinum

The term “serious game” (SG) indicates, today, that type of games characterized by a vocation more focused on training and the transmission of information rather than pure entertainment, and which has in fact experienced, in recent years, an ever-increasing diffusion, so much to determine the birth of a new category of videogames. The proposed study first attempted to analyze the concept of SG and its founding principles, then went on to examine the existing bibliography on the subject, identifying and discussing a series of practical application cases, and finally proceeded to describe the methodology se- followed for the actual realization of the SG “Exploring Abellinum,” centered on the case study of the Domus of Marcus Vipsanius Primigenius, located in the Abellinum Archaeological Park in Atripalda, in the province of Avellino. In particular, starting from the processing of the point cloud, acquired by laser scanner, then passing through the creation of the 3D model of the Domus and concluding with the export of the model to the editor of the chosen game engine, the publication of the above-mentioned serious game was achieved, with the aim of developing a useful tool to be used both for educational purposes and for the promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage, especially of minor sites that are little known and frequented, such as the case study faced.