Högskolan i Skövde

This study explores how location-based audio games can foster historical empathy by connecting museum narratives with real-world heritage sites. Developed in collaboration with the Västergötland Museum in Skara, the prototype guides players through the city using GPS-triggered audio, encouraging spatial imagination and emotional engagement. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the research combines narrative co-design, iterative prototyping, and empirical testing with ten participants. Data were collected through observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews informed by the VALERIE framework (Carneiro, Viana and Darin, 2021) and the Historical Empathy Measurement Tool (HEMT) (Crompton et al., 2023). Results indicate that audio-first design enables immersion without visual distraction and supports affective engagement with historical content. While most participants reached mid-level historical reflection, deeper contextual understanding was less frequent, suggesting further potential for design refinement. This study offers practical insights into the design of non-visual, site-specific games for cultural heritage, and contributes to ongoing discussions on empathy, narrative, and place-based interaction in serious game research.