Dutch Games Industry
About the Game
The Time Detective is an interactive city game we have developed to bring historical stories from the archives to life. The game allows players to explore the city through fun, location-based missions, all based on real historical stories, sources and characters.
The game combines heritage, technology and storytelling into an accessible experience for a wide audience, from families and schoolchildren to curious visitors. Via a user-friendly web-based platform, players are guided to special locations, where they solve puzzles, discover archive material and, step by step, track down a historical figure connected to the location. In doing so, players bring history to life and learn something about the place where they are standing.
In this game, which is played on the player’s own smartphone, the player takes on the role of an assistant to Fenna, a young and enthusiastic member of staff at the Regional Archives. Fenna calls herself a ‘time detective’ and is mad about history, but has accidentally made a serious mistake: she took important archive documents home with her and has now lost them. These documents contain stories of historical figures from Gouda, and without them, their stories are in danger of being lost forever. The player is called upon to help Fenna track down the missing individuals by scouring the city and the archive, thereby restoring the stories of Gouda’s history.
The player can choose from various ‘quests’, each focusing on a historical figure such as a brewer, a criminal, a physician or a pipe maker. During each quest, the game guides the player through the city, past locations relevant to the story of the chosen person. The quest takes the player to historic sites in Gouda where they work on the quest through various tasks. Upon completing a quest, the player receives a reward. The player experiences Gouda’s history in an interactive way, whilst exploring historic locations and learning more about life in Gouda in the past.
The Time Detective was developed by Living Story in collaboration with Tourio, De Gouda Tijdmachine (Midden-Holland Regional Archive and Die Goude Historical Society) and the Digital Heritage Network.
The game combines heritage, technology and storytelling into an accessible experience for a wide audience, from families and schoolchildren to curious visitors. Via a user-friendly web-based platform, players are guided to special locations, where they solve puzzles, discover archive material and, step by step, track down a historical figure connected to the location. In doing so, players bring history to life and learn something about the place where they are standing.
In this game, which is played on the player’s own smartphone, the player takes on the role of an assistant to Fenna, a young and enthusiastic member of staff at the Regional Archives. Fenna calls herself a ‘time detective’ and is mad about history, but has accidentally made a serious mistake: she took important archive documents home with her and has now lost them. These documents contain stories of historical figures from Gouda, and without them, their stories are in danger of being lost forever. The player is called upon to help Fenna track down the missing individuals by scouring the city and the archive, thereby restoring the stories of Gouda’s history.
The player can choose from various ‘quests’, each focusing on a historical figure such as a brewer, a criminal, a physician or a pipe maker. During each quest, the game guides the player through the city, past locations relevant to the story of the chosen person. The quest takes the player to historic sites in Gouda where they work on the quest through various tasks. Upon completing a quest, the player receives a reward. The player experiences Gouda’s history in an interactive way, whilst exploring historic locations and learning more about life in Gouda in the past.
The Time Detective was developed by Living Story in collaboration with Tourio, De Gouda Tijdmachine (Midden-Holland Regional Archive and Die Goude Historical Society) and the Digital Heritage Network.
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Tourio
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