Sepehr Vaez Afshar

The emergence of the need for orientation since the past times led the universities to invent innovative ways to prepare their students for the activities and courses they will face. Hence, various types of orientation have been provided during history. However, today with the outbreak of the Covid-19 and the closure of the schools, most of the students are continuing their studies as distance learning. While this situation is very disappointing for all freshmen students who do not know the university's atmosphere, it is extremely disruptive, specifically for the design ones, which are passing tactile courses, demanding being held face to face. This ascertains the research's problem as a need for an interactive solution for the issue to lessen the consequent problems. Game-based orientation (GBO) is a tool, engaging the freshmen students as players with the provided data in it, which are the essentials for a novel student to know before entering the university. It allows the student to be dealt with the school services, Istanbul Technical University in this case, and use them in terms of the game's tasks. The scoring system, the ultimate certificate, the leaderboard leading them to prizes, and the game's non-linearity will attract the students to use GBO frequently to finish it and experience all the possible scenarios.

Efforts to preserve cultural heritage have continuedthroughout history, and currently use game technology. Seriousgames, with their audio-visual features make it possible for players toabsorb and retain the often rather arid data of heritage. Furthermore,such technology facilitates the transmission of heritage globallyamongst remote people, without the need to commute personally.Exploring the literature, we noted a lack of local game culture in Iran,and in the Middle East more broadly. This region is limited in terms ofthe existing global game industry, and the introduction of its culture tothe world depends on the global market. This ascertains the paper'sresearch problem: the need for more local games in the field to promote local historical culture. Hence, the paper aims to preserve anddisseminate the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of its focus area, Iran’s Silk Roads and its caravanserais, by developing and testing a serious game named The Sericum Via. It has a non-linearnarrative, engaging the player in a long journey visiting the Safavidcaravanserais on the Silk Roads, using their detailed information. Thegame's text-based and strategic environment demands decision-making skills throughout the game and is challenging enough to makethe player revisit the game frequently.

With the increasing population growth of human beings, the world is being threatened by the water scarcity problem, causing insecurity in water accessibility. Therefore, a deliberated water management gains fatal importance. In addition, the awareness of the issue through education, specifically in the early ages, plays a crucial role in this path. This research considers the water issue of Istanbul in its content. However, regarding the target audience, which is the kids, it uses a novel approach to tackle the problem. The paper proposes a visually enriched and nonlinear, serious game for the children to teach them about the importance of water and its impact on the planet, specific to Istanbul. The game is inspired by National Geographic Turkey's documentary named 25 Liters: In Pursuit of Water, asking the players to survive in a drought situation in the future. It aims to change the kid's lifestyle to revive the country's in-danger future.

Virtual landscape has a prominent role in digital games' virtual environment design. Since the attributes of the virtual landscape directly affect a game's characteristics, it is crucial to be explored as a design domain, apart from just being a tool for other domains' development. This study traces the gradual change of the virtual landscape in educational games and the chronological change of their carrying content, till now a gap in the literature. To examine the effect of the virtual landscape evolution and the invention of the virtual reality (VR) technology on the intended topic of the education transmitted by the games, we classified all Steam games with the education tag based on KIM'S (2016) methodology. To do so, we transmitted their introductory information, whether they support VR and are simulation games or not, to an Excel database. Then we sorted them from 1992 till 2020. The virtual landscape classification methodology revealed a significant relationship between the content, VR technology, and the virtual landscape transformation. The study anticipates a future revolution in the landscape architecture domain by jumping into the digital game industry to enhance the virtual landscape for the sake of itself, not other disciplines.

Life is getting digital more than ever as technology improves. While the Internet is responsible for two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is underestimated as a pollutant. Since public awareness is one of the most important preservation methods, it can contribute to protecting the environment from carbon emissions by raising people's understanding. In this regard, serious games, as a type of gamification transmitting educational content besides entertainment, immerse the player in enjoyment while teaching them a specific topic or enhancing their skills in a field. This study proposes a serious game, taking the digital unseen carbon footprint and its effects on the landscape into the topic. The game considers SDG goals provided by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In this regard, the research uses SDGs 4 and 7 by providing quality education for all and access to sustainable energy by changing people's everyday habits.

The pandemic brought new norms and techniques of pedagogical strategies in formal education. The synchronous/ asynchronous video streaming brought an emphasis on virtual and augmented realities, which are rapidly replacing textbooks as the main medium for learning and teaching. This transformation requires more extensive online and interactive content with simpler user interfaces. The aim of this study is to report on the design, implementation, and testing of a game based on low-cost and user-friendly content for digital cultural heritage. In this project, a game aimed at inclusive and equitable education was developed using 360° images of the targeted architectural heritage geographically distributed in a pilot site. We promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, following the SDG4, aiming for quality education with the easy-to-use online platform and easy access to immersive education through mobile platforms. Towards a post-carbon future without the need for travel, computational design methods such as using 360° videos and images in combination with virtual reality (VR) headsets allow a low-cost approach to remotely experiencing cultural heritage. We propose developing and testing a GIS-based educational game using a low-cost 360° virtual tour of architectural heritage, more specifically, caravanserais of Anatolia.