An innovative project for the cultural regeneration of San Lorenzo
SanLo Defence
SanLo Defence: a video game for discovering the cultural sites of the San Lorenzo district.
Thanks to the opportunities offered by the Lazio Region within the framework of the DTC, RUFA developed a cultural regeneration project for the San Lorenzo district. The initiative, for the first time in Italy, brings together, in the field of research and artistic production, an Academy of Fine Arts (RUFA) and two public universities (La Sapienza and Viterbo).
The objective of the San Lorenzo Defence project – funded by the Lazio Region for the development of innovative initiatives aimed at enhancing Cultural Heritage – is to discover the cultural sites of San Lorenzo through a new approach: gaming!
The video game developed aims to provide an immersive and engaging experience that invites users to discover the cultural and socially significant places of Rome’s iconic district. The locations currently implemented and playable are: the Verano Cemetery, the Statue of Minerva, the Casa della memoria and Porta Tiburtina. More than thirty interesting places in the district will ultimately be available to discover and defend.
RUFA’s commitment to this area of the Capital is evident from the path the Academy has pursued over the years. RUFA strongly wanted to locate many of its activities at the Pastificio Cerere, making a clear contribution to the cultural revitalisation of the area: in just a few years, countless exhibitions, talks, conferences and cultural meetings have taken place in San Lorenzo, particularly in the exhibition space RUFA Space.
SANLO DEFENCE
SANLO is based on gamification to encourage and develop a new attractive identity for the San Lorenzo district and to spread awareness among the general public of 25 cultural sites located in the district, encouraging access and visits. It is a collaborative free-to-play video game for mobile platforms that combines the “Tower defense” video game genre, “Real World Adventure” and “Action RpG”.
From the tombs of the Verano Cemetery, groups of Zombies and other monstrous beings are organising themselves into an army whose aim is to attack and defeat the residents of the district, allied with students living away from home and the community spaces operating in the area.
The army of Zombies, drug dealers and speculators wants first and foremost to seize control of San Lorenzo’s cultural sites, and then extend its domination over commercial activities, squares and common assets.
The players’ objective is to prevent this devastation, joining forces and collaborating in defence of the district. The conflict takes place under the supervision of the Goddess Ceres, who has both an infernal and solar aspect (she is the maternal goddess of the earth and fertility, of births and harvests, but at the same time she is connected to the world of the dead, to the opening of the pit of the Caereris mundus) and may help one faction or the other depending on the gifts and sacrifices dedicated to her.
The project
The project, developed primarily by students, aims to provide multidisciplinary experiences in which programmers and video game developers interact. At the same time, it seeks to encourage the hybridisation of languages, overcoming the traditional separation between artistic/humanistic and technical/scientific approaches, training students in the enhancement of cultural heritage through experimentation and the use of innovative forms of communication connected to the dynamics of gaming. The aim is to create new approaches to “place design” through the use of devices and tools capable of involving users and enabling them to participate in co-design and in the active definition and development of a territory’s identity.
It should not be forgotten that the Ministry of Culture, led by Dario Franceschini, included video games in the list of Italian cultural assets in 2021, providing for the issuance of a special implementing decree regulating the so-called “Tax Credit”, recognising a tax credit of up to 25 percent. Video games, the decree states, “are the result of creative ingenuity and it is only right that, similarly to cinema and audiovisual works, they should be eligible for support if recognised as works of particular cultural value.
SANLO aims to catalyse the interest of users/players, public opinion and citizens in the district’s problems, its threats and therefore the importance of safeguarding cultural sites and the centres of excellence present in the area. The reason for this choice is very clear. San Lorenzo is a representative district: students, residents, businesses, venues, craftspeople, artists, retail, restaurants and hospitality activities interact with one another in a coexistence that is certainly not easy. It is therefore necessary to define a path that is not limited to mutual respect, but also focuses on revitalisation. Too many news events have marked the memory of San Lorenzo and overshadowed its history of resistance and cultural regeneration.