MAKE BELIEVE

Make Believe is a visionary look at the future of location-based entertainment comprising of three main experiental attractions, and a number of ancillary attractions.

The premiere experience – called “Waking Wonderland” is a sweeping 35 min extended-reality interactive narrative experience where users are taken on a brand new journey through Lewis Caroll’s Wonderland. The second – an interactive exhibition detailing the history and evolution of Hasbro toys and games, The third experience being two free-roam VR stages, allowing for 8 players on each stage to be transported to new environments and have new experiences.

I was responsible for all aspects of the layout and design of the physical spaces, arrangement of the attractions, as well as the production of building-permit ready drawings. In a directorial role I worked closely with concept artist Rob Brunette to ideate and visualise these spaces, as well as with the Waking Wonderland art team to co-ordinate the digital environment design of that experience with the physical layouts of each room.

More details about each experience and my role in it are detailed below.

Pitch Imagery and Early Branding

The project has gone through numerous iterations before arriving at the current incarnation. Earlier in its design history, I was responsible for visualizing some of the potential experiences that the overall location might house. Additionally I worked with Designer Melody Tam on the branding look and feel, translating the designs to architectural visualizations of things like signage, as an example of what branded installations could look like. As the branding developed, the idea of a castle emerged as a defining iconographic touchstone, which could act as both a major design element as well as a realised installation with projected content.

PRESENTATION GRAPHICS AND BRANDING EXPLORATIONS

POTENTIAL SPACES

CONTINUED LOGO DEVELOPMENT AND CASTLE CENTERPIECE DESIGNS

Architectural Design and Layout Development

Make Believe evolved from an earlier pitch for a smaller installation of just the “Waking Wonderland” portion of the project. When talks for a larger than necessary space seemed to progress, the project expanded to include additional attractions.

The ‘Waking Wonderland’ layout changed from a purely linear progression to one that would allow each room in the narrative sequence to be accessed from a central hub, allowing for a ‘free play’ mode to be used during off-peak hours.

After a change to another larger potential location, food and beverage was temporarily removed due to setup costs, and more program was added.

The Spaces and Attractions

The design of each space was carefully considered and done in conjunction with the overall architectural layout, in order to give each space a unique character and bring an interesting experience to each customer as the move through the attractions.

I was primarily responsible for laying out planned attractions, and working closely with Concept Designer Rob Brunette and the art team to direct the look and feel of each room, ensuring the creative intent and practical requirements combined in an ideal manner.

The caption of each image below details more on the design thinking behind each space.

COMMON SPACES & THE VR FREE ROAM STAGES

PRIMARY EXHIBITION – ‘WAKING WONDERLAND’

SECONDARY EXHIBITION – ‘THE FUTURE OF PLAY’

Alternates and Adaptations

The project underwent several additional ideation phases – including explorations of the next full content iteration of the entire space, wholly branded to the Transformers IP.

Internally dubbed Transformers: The Ark, It would feature some new attractions, including a ‘magic mirror’ where visitors could interact with a digital avatar of a transformer controlled by an actor in the back of house, as well as a series of LED digital display interactive gaming platforms.

‘Waking Wonderland’ was rethought to an entirely new 35 min experience called ‘Energon Run’ – Where visitors would be transported to Cybertron to help the Autobots extract energon and return safely to earth.

ATRIUM, NEW ATTRACTIONS AND FREE ROAM VR

AUTOBOTS ENERGON RUN – SHOWN WITH WORK-IN-PROGRESS IMAGERY

Another adaptation that was developed was due to the opportunity to license some of the content of the primary exhibition – ‘Waking Wonderland’ to a different extended reality facility. The images shown were the first pass at what this could potentially look like within the confines of the licensee’s facilities.

The design has since been updated, allowing for more of the Waking Wonderland experience to be included, and preserving the narrative structure developed for the original installation.

It is currently in the final stages of design and images for the new layout will be added as they are made.

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