This popular mobile game wants players to help recover lost Revolutionary War treasures

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

(CNN) — Gamers are being asked to hunt down lost artifacts from the American Revolutionary War in a virtual treasure hunt that creators hope will lead to some real-world discoveries.

“June’s Journey” is a popular free-to-play hidden object mobile game from Berlin-based developer Wooga.

Players step into 1920s New York where they take on the role of amateur detective June Parker as she searches for clues to solve crimes. The game has been downloaded more than 50 million times on Google Play.

Now, Wooga has collaborated with historians, museums, galleries and even descendants of some of the original owners to “integrate” missing artifacts into the game for a limited period.

Among the items are an 18th century Battle of Cowpens medal, awarded to Gen. Daniel Morgan after his forces defeated the British in South Carolina in 1781. It was later stolen from a bank vault and hasn’t been seen in more than 200 years.

As well as the medal, gamers will be challenged to find a coat of arms, a cannon, a military cap with three ostrich feathers and an embroidered scene.

The latest treasure hunt was partly inspired by the 1999 children’s movie “Stuart Little.” When Hungarian art historian Gergely Barki watched the film with his daughter in 2009, he made an incredible discovery: Hanging in the background of one scene was a painting he recognized as Róbert Berény’s “Sleeping Lady with Black Vase,” which had gone missing decades earlier.

Barki contacted the movie makers and heard from a set designer who said she had bought it in a California antiques store, unaware of its provenance. She told Barki she had sold it to a private collector, who then took the painting back to Hungary and sold it at auction.

Ben O’Donnell, “June’s Journey” game director, told CNN that incident led his team to wonder whether embedding missing artifacts in interactive media could result in their recovery.

According to O’Donnell, the game has a mostly female following and is particularly popular in the US. They therefore saw this year’s 250th milestone anniversary as an “opportunity” for a “really interesting integration,” he said.

Wooga enlisted Don Hagist, an author, historian and managing editor of “Journal of the American Revolution,” to help them choose which artifacts to include.

Impressed, Hagist reached out to the journal’s contributors for their suggestions, he told CNN.

“A lot of people wrote and said ‘we’d love to have this or that person’s coat or musket or who knows what document.’ These are items we know existed at the time of the revolution but we don’t know if they survived.”

“The idea of incorporating these things into a medium millions of people will see is brilliant,” Hagist said.

Gamers will also be on the lookout for part of King George III’s royal coat of arms from Philadelphia’s historic Christ Church, attended by George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Most of the symbol is believed to have been torn down by patriots at the onset of the revolution, though the surviving third remains at the church.

The game will feature one of two engraved cannons surrendered at the Battles of Saratoga on September 19 and October 7, 1777 — and later used in defense of the early United States.

They went missing in 1813 following the recapture of Ogdensburg, New York, by British and Canadian forces.

Other items hidden in the game include an embroidered textile believed to depict the long-demolished New Jersey estate of Revolutionary War general William Alexander, known as Lord Stirling, and a red British military coat last recorded in 1901 in Connecticut.

While not featured in the game itself, a host of other missing items are listed on a dedicated page for players who want to delve deeper. The hope is this will encourage them to look out for more artifacts.

Anyone who thinks they may have uncovered something will be directed to a dedicated submissions channel, where Hagist will review their evidence.

“If somebody contacts me, the first thing is to establish trust and say ‘nobody’s going to come and arrest you because you have this — we’re just grateful to know it exists,’” Hagist said. He will then consult with experts to authenticate the finds.

Being free to play means the game has a “huge audience,” said O’Donnell.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity to use the power of the volume of people who really love this game to help us try and find something in the real world.”

“When you say these items are lost, you might assume they’ve been stolen or something nefarious has happened, but some of them might be sitting in someone’s attic or a small town museum. We want to educate people on these artifacts, their historical significance and what they look like — it could just trigger something in someone’s mind.”

The feature will be available throughout July.

Arthur Brand, an art crime investigator who has recovered more than 200 works of art, including some by Picasso, said he thinks “linking a game to a hunt for missing historical artifacts is a great concept.”

Brand, who is not involved with the initiative, told CNN: “The media attention surrounding this game could genuinely help one or more items surface. Players might start searching online, or current owners might recognize their items as missing or stolen.

“What appeals to me most, though, is the hope that young gamers will get interested in history, in this case specifically the world of 1776. I’m not a gamer myself, but I will be keeping a close eye on whether any artifacts turn up.”

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