M4RT3! It is a beautiful project that naturally manages to couple the fun of the most demanding escape rooms with disclosure.
Developed by the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan in collaboration with Inaf-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera and with the visual design and development curated by Marimento, M4RT3! It’s escape room onlinea narrative journey between science and science fiction, on the trail of the famous astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, to discover the mysteries of Mars.
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“The collaboration with the Brera Observatory is ancient. At the Museum, a section dedicated to astronomy and space has already existed since 1961. It was set up using part of the historical heritage of the Observatory. So when we imagined a Mars-themed escape room, the first thought was to refer to the Observatory where he worked Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli who is the dad, the founder of modern studies of the planet Mars and of planetology in general. At the Museum we exhibit the telescope he used to make these observations and studies”, says Luca Reduzzi, Space Curator of the Museum.
M4RT3! It is a narrative and investigative experience that plays on the border between fiction, historical reality and current events, where players can discover the true story of Schiaparelli, director of the Brera Astronomical Observatory in Milan, who on the night of 23 August 1877, pointing telescope, casually towards the Red Planet, discovered continents, seas, islands, canals, polar caps and came to fantasize about the existence of intelligent beings, the Martians.
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“Giovanni Schiaparelli was the most famous Italian astronomer of the 19th century. His fame is due to his studies on the planet Mars. Studies that have not only given birth to a new line of research in astronomy, but have provided new impulses to the world of science fiction. In fact, thanks to his observations it was hypothesized that there could be life on Mars. The Martians are therefore born in Milan thanks to the work of Schiaparelli”.
M4RT3! It is a collaborative game with the aim of unraveling a mystery that appears to threaten the Earth, by solving puzzles based on archival documents and real information, analyzing real content of the Mars 2020 mission on the NASA site and images coming directly from the European Space Agency, exploring virtual places, doing web research and carrying out surveys guided by a spirit of observation and logical deduction. An experience that played in a group is extremely rewarding and fun.
“Sci-fi and gaming share a lot. One of the first video games was born in the early sixties with Spacewar in an MIT lab on the PDP-1 computer. A professor studying mathematical equations discovered that he could draw ellipses using the computer. Two spaceships fighting each other, launching missiles on a starry sky. The video game was born in science fiction, and thematic titles are countless, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender, to the latest Mass Effect, Star Citizen…” Explains Luca Roncella, Gaming & Digital Interactivity manager of the Museum, and continues: “Science fiction for its part was born in the mid-seventeenth century, with astronomical and physical discoveries, so it owes a lot to science. These two languages, the video game and science fiction, are very useful for telling science because today we are constantly immersed in scientific topics. We have seen this in the last two years with the pandemic, where we have been called upon to make important decisions trying to interpret what were the voices of science. But no matter how popularizers and researchers try to make complex subjects simple, the work remains arduous. Video games can be a useful tool in our hands. We as the Science Museum have been making science-themed video games for years to tell science, one example among many, is the creation of a few years ago, on the occasion of the rearrangement of the Space section, we developed a collaborative title in which players were asked to build a rocket and a satellite to go and explore a planet . Thanks to the playful path it is possible to learn very complex notions, gaming, for its messianisms of involvement, of flow, is an excellent tool for narrating these themes”.
The M4RT3 Online Escape Room! it is available for PC (Windows, Mac or Linux) or tablet, it requires an internet connection. The experience lasts 90 minutes and can be enjoyed by one to teams of six players. It costs 10 euros and can be purchased directly on the Museum website, or in the card version in the MUST shop bookshop.