"I played until two o'clock at night, still dreaming and solving puzzles" "A high-IQ game, very playable, and you can also learn historical knowledge"... Recently, the museum's interactive puzzle books continue to Popular. This type of puzzle book is based on the collection of cultural relics and history, breaking the simple text reading experience. Readers need to use physical books, accompanying books, and mobile software to solve puzzles. It can be called "a script-killing game that can be played by just one person." , which not only satisfies young people's hobby of reasoning, but also contains "hard-core" historical and cultural relics knowledge, making many people unable to put it down.
Blooming everywhere
Museum interactive puzzle books are hot-selling
On the online shopping platform, search for keywords such as "museum puzzle book" and you can see many Cultural and cultural institutions have launched such products. These include the "Mystery Palace" series of books from the Forbidden City, which are the ancestors of domestic "museum puzzle books", "Dunhuang Mechanism Puzzle Box" from the Dunhuang Academy, "Asking Qin" from the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum Museum, and "Bole··" from the National Museum of China Lantern Festival" and many other puzzle books sell hundreds of books per month.
A copy of the calligraphy of "Yan Qin Li Stele", a rubbing of "The Nestorian Popular Chinese Stele of the Qin Dynasty", silver hairpins, photos, acupuncture, glasses, newspapers, letters... are in the Shaanxi History Museum's " The exquisite antique attachments in the puzzle book "The Middle Game of the Antique Game - Endless Treasures" make readers feel as if they have traveled through the smoke and clouds of history. Many puzzle books have exquisite binding designs. For example, in the puzzle book "Asking Qin" from the Qin Shihuang Emperor's Mausoleum Museum, the box itself is the structure of the underground palace. Readers have to use props to continuously solve the puzzles and slowly explore this large-scale, A luxurious underground palace with a unique structure.
Reader Mr. Liu is a fan of interactive museum puzzle books. “Compared with some crudely produced scripts, many of the designs in museum interactive puzzle books are really amazing, with rich plots and fascinating stories.” In "Asking Qin", players need to use a perforated transparent plate to detect the dot pattern indicating the level of mercury content on the underground palace map, and then use a hot silver transparent sticker marked with the water system of the Qin Dynasty to fit the dot pattern, and finally in The underground palace scene "with mercury as the river and the sea" is completed on the map. "This moment is really full of accomplishment."
Division of labor and collaboration
Cultural and museum institutions join hands with the game design team
In 2018, the Forbidden City's first creative interactive puzzle book " "Mystery Palace Ruyi Linlang Picture Book" was released, with a pre-sale amount of 20.2 million yuan, breaking the publication crowdfunding record on the world's mainstream crowdfunding platforms. Since then, the Forbidden City has launched "Mystery Palace·Gold List Title" and "Mystery Palace·Yongle Suspense Formation" in 2019 and 2022 respectively. Looking back on the original intention of developing this series of books, Liu Hui, deputy director of the Palace Museum Cultural and Creative Research Institute and former editor-in-chief of the Palace Museum Publishing House, said that on the one hand, he hoped to integrate culture and tourism to allow tourists to explore more areas of the Palace Museum along the story clues; On the other hand, it is educational and entertaining, allowing readers to understand the profound history and culture of the Forbidden City through the game.
Liu Hui introduced that a team of experts from the Forbidden City participated in the writing of this series of books and conducted rigorous academic research on the historical details in the books. "For example, the word 'Xuan' during the Qianlong period was a taboo word. You should write one less dot because 'Xuan Ye' is the name of Kangxi and the grandfather of Emperor Qianlong." In terms of the design of game levels and puzzles, Managed by a professional game design team. "So books are the product of our cooperation, and they are also a reflection of the museum's openness and social cooperation." In terms of promotion, the "Puzzle" series of books also chose a new business model and conducted crowdfunding on the Modian platform.
In Liu Hui’s view, puzzle books are the result of the integration of culture and technology, and the initiative of cultural and museum institutions to embrace the interests of young people. Readers need to advance the storyline step by step through antique thread-bound books, rich and exquisite accessories and mobile phones, just like a scripted killer, full of entertainment and knowledge. "Many visitors to the Forbidden City, especially young people, are very interested in Chinese history and culture. We need to understand their interests and hobbies and attract them in novel ways. Cultural and creative forms can be lively and diverse, but the content of dissemination must be durable Starting from the examination.
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Expert comments
Creative exploration of the connotation of cultural relics is the key
“The museum puzzle book is a new attempt in cultural and cultural creation, after 4 years of development , still maintains a strong momentum of development. The museum's puzzle book integrates historical facts, mystery reasoning, and artistic creation, allowing the audience to restore the real historical scenes step by step in the process of solving puzzles, thereby feeling the deep cultural charm behind the cultural relics. "Zhu Min, associate professor at the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China and director of the Culture and Tourism Research Base of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that compared with general cultural and creative products, museum puzzle books have better interactivity and experience, which is extremely satisfying. It has aroused the curiosity and thirst for knowledge of the audience, and has high aesthetic value and collection value.
As the types of puzzle books in museums increase, some products of varying quality also begin to appear, and some netizens complain. Some products have problems such as rough app production and unclear printing details, which affects puzzle solving. Zhu Min said that cultural museum puzzle books involve many industry fields such as cultural museums, games, creative design, and publishing, and require close division of labor among various industry elements to build a foundation for the development of puzzles. A value-creating cultural and cultural innovation ecosystem. In the face of constantly iterating market and consumer demands, relevant parties must calm down and persist in innovative development on the basis of protecting cultural relics.
Zhu Mintan. While pursuing fresh forms of expression and pleasant sensory experiences, cultural and museum institutions need to constantly sort out and explore the rich cultural connotations hidden in cultural relics, adhere to historical facts, strengthen awareness of copyright protection, promote high-quality and sustainable development of museum puzzle books, and provide Promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s excellent traditional culture and make greater contributions.