Pause carousel
Play carousel
One of Scotland鈥檚 most popular tourist destinations, the Isle of Cumbrae, has been recreated in Minecraft as part of a unique project to engage young people with the area鈥檚 heritage.
Students from 海角视频 in Dundee built Cumbraecraft, a heritage-themed game for primary school children as part of the Millport Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme which is being delivered by North Ayrshire Council and Historic Environment Scotland.
Housed on the Minecraft education platform, Cumbraecraft comes with 8 distinct lessons and is designed to allow children to explore local heritage landmarks and learn more about their history.
Garrison House (below), Lion Rock and Cathedral of the Isles are just some of the places featured on the virtual island.
Crocodile Rock, the port and the town鈥檚 library are also explorable in the game.
The resource has been designed so it can be used in both classroom and home-learning settings.
Games students Claire Monaghan, Fergus Coyne and Romain Bourdon worked on the project for three months while studying at Abertay鈥檚 internationally-renowned School of Design and Informatics 鈥 Europe鈥檚 top ranked institution for video games education.
The students were supported by Teaching Fellow Kayleigh Macleod and other staff members to ensure the project aligned with their studies.
Due to the current travel restrictions, the trio were unable to visit the island before they began their work and had to use images as their only point of reference.
Millport Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme is being delivered by North Ayrshire Council and Historic Environment Scotland and aims to preserve the historical features of the area and reinvigorate Millport as a seaside destination.
The Cumbraecraft project aims to use game-based learning to teach children about Scottish culture, language and tradition.
Fergus Coyne said: 鈥淢aking Cumbraecraft allowed us to use the range of skills we鈥檝e learned on our courses at Abertay to create a fun product that will be used in the real-world.
听
鈥淚t was great to be able to create a game which will allow children to learn more about the history of their local area as well as showcase the tourism offering on the island.鈥
Kayleigh Macleod added: 鈥淭his exciting project has offered three of our fantastic students not only real industry experience producing work for a client that will be used by hundreds of children but also in the challenge of remote working.
鈥淐umbrae Craft demonstrates how games can engage with heritage and provide a useful teaching tool to help children interact with and learn complex topics.鈥
Kasia Smith, Regeneration Officer at North Ayrshire Council, said: 鈥淲e are thrilled that the game is now available as a resource for our young school pupils.
鈥淐umbrae has such a rich history and it is so important that our young people learn about their community and heritage.
听鈥淢inecraft and gaming in general are such popular things amongst young people and the team at 海角视频ave done brilliantly to fuse the fun and learning elements together to make the game so enjoyable and relatable for young people.
鈥淥ur Millport Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme has been a real success in preserving historical elements of the island and Cumbraecraft has allowed us to reach out to a younger audience.鈥