ModenaBalsamicGenius – Recognizing excellence through play

The Consorzio Tutela Aceto Balsamico di Modena (the Protection Consortium of Aceto Balsamico di Modena) brought us on board to raise awareness of a very concrete issue: protecting a certified local product. Labels of certified Aceto Balsamico di Modena are often hard to tell apart from those of similar products, and consumers struggle to recognize the original. This is where ModenaBalsamicGenius comes from: a web app game launched at “SupermerKaos,” the informational pop-up set up during the 2026 Festival della Filosofia, and now available to everyone online as well.

THE PROJECT

The goal was to turn informative content, the rules for recognizing a genuine label, into a playful experience that makes it easier to understand and remember. Instead of explaining, we chose to make people play.

Play becomes the most natural way to make complex content more memorable: those who complete the two challenges haven’t just “read” the rules to recognize the Aceto Balsamico di Modena PGI, they have applied them firsthand, to reach a goal and win.

GAME MECHANICS

• “True or False” quiz: users look at a label and decide whether it is genuine or counterfeit, training their eye to spot the details that make the difference.
• Spot the odd one out: an image with several clickable hotspots, one of which hides an error. Finding it takes attention, knowledge, and recall of what was explained during the pop-up visit or read in the web app’s informational sections.
• “Balsamic Guardian” badge: once both missions are completed, users earn a final award that rewards their journey and strengthens their sense of acquired expertise.

Tips and tricks

Both games focus on images: genuine and non-genuine labels for the quiz, and scenes with specific errors for “spot the odd one out.” We used generative AI to create the fake labels. The same labels went through multiple validation stages, and generative AI streamlines the validation cycle, which is usually a critical phase.

Play as reinforcement of the visit.
The experience alternates with the explanation: first you listen or read, then you play to check what you’ve learned. This approach, game-based learning, works because it puts users in the role of active protagonists rather than mere spectators.
The result is content that, in general, stays in memory longer and, in this specific case, an experience that extends the time spent with it, whether in a physical installation or in the web app itself, accessible to everyone at any time.

TECH STACK

Frontend: Symfony – Symfony UX React
Animations: RIVE