The Apa game (temporary name) is a third-person adventure game for on-line PC platforms. It uses the open source Blender game engine to thrust players into the role of a merchant's apprentice in 13th century Italian city of Bologna. Guido, the main character, falls into a time vortex and finds himself in Roman Bologna, where, through the accomplishment of some quests and the solution of funny educational riddles, he must figure out a way to get back home, in the 13th century.

Relevant concepts of the production are: re-use, open-source, philological attention, cross-mediality. The game uses several already available assets from the "Apa the Etruscan" movie, adapted for on-line game, plus some modified characters from BlendSwap; the open-source production pipeline is grounded on Blender for modeling, adaptation of animated and high-poly models to real time and developement of gameplay scripting; OwnCloud for storage and sharing; Blender Game Engine and Burster for on-line gaming. The assets are based on precise archaeological references and realised under scientific supervision and the on-line game will be accompanied by an Augmented Reality application for iOS devices, to be used while strolling about the real city of Bologna.

The game is developed by CINECA, CNR-ITABC and Fraunhofer as a testbed inside the V-Must project.
People:

Antonella Guidazzoli, Cineca, Producer
Antonio Baglivo, Cineca, Game developer
Daniele De Luca, Cineca, Lead Artist, storyboard, screenwriter and game developer
Francesca Delli Ponti, 3D modeling
Maria Chiara Liguori, Cineca, Supervisor, storyboard and screenwriter
Chiara Bonanni, Rossella Pansini, Maurizio Quarta, Francesco Veronesi, Cineca, 3D modelling and Animation
Sofia Pescarin, CNR-ITABC, Producer
Augusto Palombini, CNR-ITABC, Screenwriter
Emanuel Demetrescu, CNR-ITABC, Lead Artist, development platform, lighter
Daniele Ferdani, CNR-ITABC, 3D modeling and medieval consultant
Luca de Felice, CNR-ITABC, 3D modeling and game design
Ya'ara Ilan, CNR-ITABC, Storyboard and Game design
Holger Graf, Fraunhofer, Producer
Guido Lucci Baldassari, CNR-ITABC, App Development
Jacopo Ortalli, University of Ferrara, Archaeological consultant

At the following link movies and images about its making-of:

https://hpc-forge.cineca.it/files/visit_Dissemination/public/ApaGame/