Launched at Tūhura Otago Museum last week, Hidden Aotearoa — an immersive storytelling game — is a collaboration between Dannevirke-based iwi Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua and Singapore-based social enterprise Hidden Experience.
Hidden Aotearoa chief executive Andrew Te Whaiti said the game had been two and a-half years in the making and the museum was the first location in New Zealand — and outside Singapore — to feature it.
It combined storytelling with technology to unveil the “hidden components” of the stories within the museum, he said.
As users navigated the museum using WhatsApp, they would receive information and clues and be challenged with questions by a cheeky virtual guide — Piata, the “Catbot”.
By uncovering pieces of hidden knowledge, museum-goers would learn new things and have an enriched experience, Mr Te Whaiti said.
It was “kind of like a digital treasure hunt”.
“It’s a combination of educational and experiential, with a lot of laughter in between.”
Hidden Experience offered about 20 experiences in Singapore at present — including at Changi Airport, National Gallery Singapore, shopping malls and “any location where there’s a cool story to be told”, he said.
Each destination needed nearly six weeks of detailed research to identify hidden stories which could enrich the visitor experience — anything from a building’s architecture or design to what was housed inside.
“If you can just tap into Google and find the information, that’s not what we’re looking for.
“We want to go sort of a layer below that and find the hidden stories.”
The company had begun brainstorming with the museum on other locations around Dunedin where the technology could be used.
Tūhura Otago Museum had been fantastic to work with and had good stories, which made it a worthy location for the game to make its New Zealand debut, he said.
“This is just the start — we’ve just got to quietly build up momentum, continue to build credibility in the marketplace and drive more visitors there.”
