Have you ever wanted to play with a museum’s collections? Now you can!
The MAO (Museum of Oriental Art Turin) launches The Mystery of the Dragon’s Stone, its first gamebook with a deck of 48 cards, which will allow visitors aged 9 and up to discover the museum’s most important works in less than two hours while enjoying a gaming experience.
The gamebook is like a video game, but on paper: you can win or lose life points, engage in battles, lose or find items, and capture mythical creatures. All you need to start the game is a pen or pencil!
The game was created in collaboration with the MAO Educational Services, after two years of work that led to this result. The project got a research, playful, artistic, and educational approach.
The benefits of this project, linked to the concept of cultural gamification, are a lot: the main one is the ability for children to explore the museum without a guide in less than two hours, discovering its main works through play. Moreover, with gamification, children actively engage, making decisions and becoming the protagonists of their visit: no longer spectators, but actors in the museum.
Official link:
https://www.maotorino.it/it/evento/presentazione-del-nuovo-librogioco-del-mao/
https://www.maotorino.it/it/education/famiglie/#module-7
Press:
https://www.artribune.com/editoria/2025/04/primo-gioco-bambini-mao-torino/
https://arte.sky.it/news/2025/librogioco-bambini-museo-mao-torino
"The MAO (Museum
of Oriental Art)
attracts over
100,000 visitors annually,
offering a rich cultural
experience with its diverse collections."
