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A digital game developed by Team Yukthi of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Chennai turns the spotlight on Indian monuments, as it showcases history and traditions.
The game has earned the team of first year engineering students — R Amrita Laasya, A Bhavika Taneja, A R Giris Teja and Kadambari Sree Rama Aditya — along with a third year student S Palaniappan a slot among winners at the recently organised Toycathon 2021, an inter-ministerial initiative of the Government of India.
The event, held virtually on Toy Cloud digital platform, saw the participation of over one lakh students in 17,000 teams. From the shortlisted 1,500 teams, 117 teams emerged winners.
“It was exciting to develop a game,” says Palaniappan. “Though we learn about developing software, this game was a great learning experience. It was challenging to design the board.”
The digital board game, designed on the react.js Java platform, is a treasure hunt set in India where players criss-cross monuments along a path that promises to lead them to treasure. As players roll the dice and plan moves, a yaksha appears, posing a question about each monument. Every right answer is a key that takes them closer to the treasure.
Once the player takes the 30-second quiz on the monument, he/she is redirected to blogs on the topic. Players can also take in a 3D view of the monument complete with a virtual tour guide.
The team | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Says Bhavika, “We could improve upon the game based on inputs from the faculty. The judges liked our board design. The 3D views of the monuments are my favourite.” For Aditya and Giris, it was an opportunity to update their knowledge on history and monuments.
Sreedevi AG, assistant professor of the department of computer science, who mentored the team, credits the students for the novel idea.
“Why should history be restricted to textbooks?” asks Amrita, adding, “A game is a great way to highlight unknown facts about monuments, be it architecture, designs or heritage.” While they dug up the history of 100 monuments, from the Ajanta-Ellora caves to Jantar Mantar, the game currently features information on 30.