Game Literacy and Cultural Heritage: Serious Games and Storytelling as Transmedia Educational Tools

Abstract

This article investigates how serious games and transmedia digital storytelling can enhance game literacy and cultural education. We define game literacy as the ability to interpret and critically engage with games, particularly in educational settings. Serious games, when designed with pedagogical and cultural goals, serve not only to inform but to immerse learners in dynamic, reflective experiences. Integrating storytelling with game mechanics allows users to make meaningful decisions and navigate content actively. We explore how narrative-driven games foster both emotional engagement and critical thinking and we propose a design framework for educational games that emphasizes learner agency, adaptive mechanics, and multimodal interaction. This approach positions the learner as a co-creator of knowledge and a participant in the cultural narrative. We argue that serious games can bridge generational gaps in heritage learning by translating content into the language of digital-native audiences, supporting both preservation and innovation.