Antebellum El Dorado house featured in road-trip game

EL DORADO — El Dorado is now featured in a new mobile game focused on a road trip from New York to San Francisco.

The game, Matchino, which is available on Android and will be offered on iOS in the next month, is a match-three style game where the player is prompted to line up three or more of the same objects.

The idea was inspired by film director Sam Azzarano’s road trip across the country a few years ago, when he was working for a nonprofit organization.

“I got to see a lot of areas of the country that not many people see when they’re going on a trip because it was a road trip,” he said. “I was just amazed by how much local culture there is around the country with the different kinds of people around there. I really wanted to showcase that in this game.”

Azzarano, who is part of Emmersion Studios, which released the game, said the team was inspired to share some of the beautiful or historic locations around the country.

He said they started by drawing a road across the country and looking for places to put bends, particularly places of cultural relevance.

El Dorado is the only city in Arkansas to be included in the current version of the game. Other nearby locations have been included, such as Monroe, La.; Lafayette, La.; and Natchez, Miss. Each level includes a hand-drawn image of a significant site.

The El Dorado level is focused on the John Newton house, Azzarano said, stating that it is a pre-Civil War mansion that’s been turned into a museum that “offers a glimpse into Antebellum life and offers historical re-enactments.”

Azzarano said the team decided to include the Newton House because of its historical significance in the area and its architecture.

“We thought it looked beautiful and it had an interesting story to tell.”