Game app promotes São Paulo museum

A new app helps promote the connection between train and subway services and the São Paulo art museum.

The São Paulo Pinacoteca – the oldest museum in the city – has partnered with the São Paulo Metro and CPTM and ViaQuatro rail lines to launch an interactive game promoting the museum. As the Pinoteca is located near several important subway and rail lines in São Paulo, designers at F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi created the game, called PinaTrilhos (‘PinaTracks’), with the idea of combining art and urban mobility. The game uses the train to test the players’ knowledge of the museum’s collection.

Players download the app and start the game at their nearest train or metro station. To begin, the player takes a photo of the station signboard. The app then generates the best route for them to take to reach the Pinacoteca station. Players must play the game inside the train. To advance, the player must answer true or false questions about the artwork at the museum. A right answer moves the player one stop closer to the final station, while a wrong answer moves the player one stop away from the museum. The game is available for free on IOS and Android, and a game board can also be printed from the game website for playing offline.

Interactive games are a great way to help people learn and to generate interest in cultural events or social initiatives. We have previously seen this with augmented reality that gamifies sightseeing and an app that allows gamers to donate to microfinance projects as they play. Theo Rocha, Creative Director at F/Nazca, explains that creating PinaTrilhos was partly about convincing people that museums are for everyone: “We want to show that consuming art can be simple, fun, and accessible to everyone.” What other cultural events or sites could be turned into a game?