Let’s imagine the situation that we are approaching a Nicholas Copernicus monument and we can talk to him and take a photo together. Now we are talking not about a cold statue made from metal or marble but a person that moves and talks to us.

Pokemon Go game successfully combined digital entertainment with physical activity. There is giant still unused educational and tourist potential in such types of applications. Thanks to that we could promote culture, history and many interesting places in Poland.
Why not meet Copernicus, King Casimir the Great or Zawisza the Black instead of Pokemon? Like in many other RPG games we would get quests and look for treasures, discover the secrets of haunted palaces and visit cities, towns and museums. Our guide would be even the very king, writer or an astronomer.
Mission Copernicus is a good example of such use. Thanks to augmented reality we can see a prominent figure in places connected with his life for instance in Frombork, Lidzbark Warmiński, Olsztyn and Lubawa, towns situated on the Copernicus route. During conversations with the astronomer, it turns out that he has a quest for us which demands finding lost artifacts such as: a globular astrolabe, books’ On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’ Triquetrum and Solar Quadrant hidden in different locations. A treasure hunt, history and astronomy lesson in one.

In order to take part in Mission Copernicus, download the free application Slavic Monsters from Google Play and after launching the application in one of the towns in the mission, you will get a message from Copernicus and begin the quest. The game does not finish after finding all objects. We can use them later in the game for instance while looking for ghosts and mythological creatures connected with native religion and culture.

By Marek Maruszczak