Interactive Narrative Design for Geographically Dispersed Points of Interest

In 2020, the RheijnLand.Xperiences project will connect eight museums along the Dutch-German border region by a continuation network using a story-driven application for mobile devices for an audience between the ages of 14 and 25. The goal of the project is to motivate users to visit other museums in the network. While experiences and stories are individually tailored for each museum, an overarching narrative and experience structure is also designed to establish connections between them. This structure relies heavily on the contemporary narrative and location-based gaming concepts and practices to compensate for the environmental and thematic diversity of each museum. To enrich the overall experience of visiting multiple museums in the network, the design also relies upon shared and regional characteristics. In this chapter, the authors summarize their conceptual approach, findings of the analysis of the distribution of the museums in the region, core elements of the “universal” narrative and experience design, and early results of the development.