For this assignment we were tasked with creating an immersive experience based on the children’s story, Alice in Wonderland. Coming up with an idea for this project was difficult at first as I have little to no experience working creating this kind of piece and was limited by my pre-existing abilities and what I could learn in the lab sessions.
For my piece I want to create, I want to start out with being in a normal dark forest. Being surrounded with trees and bushes and no clear path to lead down. An orb of light then appears and the camera is seemingly being lead by a light through this forest. This will then lead to a table in a clearing with the eat me cookie and the drink me bottle which are an important part of the base story so I thought it was good to include them as a nod to the original. The camera will then dip down towards the table with the objects on and cut to white. The camera will then pan back up and bring the forest into view again, however now it will look different. The objects on the table will be gone from view as if they have been used up. The world around you will be more fantastical than it was before with strange and unusual colours and things flipped around and looking weird compared to the normal looking scene from before. There will also be floating playing cards visible in the sky and other elements to make it look like the world is falling apart and changing into wonderland. I imagine the sky will be pink and the grass and leaves in the forest will be blue to give a really surreal feel to the piece. The viewer will be able to look around this environment to see the world around them.
They then will be lead down a path to the left after seeing a card red hearts card in that direction, they then begin walking looking at the environment around them, eventually the screen will cut to black as if it is the wrong direction. They will then be taken back to the table and try the right path, the same thing will happen with a balloon, and you will be reset again to black then the clearing as if you are being forced to go back to the start. The orb of light will then appear again the final time you are back at the clearing and will lead you away from the table and deeper into the forest eventually cutting to white as if you picked the right option.
My idea is inspired by the video game Alice: Madness Returns, the 2011 sequel to American Mcgee’s Alice. Within this game the character of Alice Liddell goes on a journey to discover her memories. The aim of the game is to work through from the real world to wonderland. This game inspired my piece as the beginning of the game the world and the colours in the environment are all dull and normal and boring. The game is saturated with beige and brown colours showing how boring the real world is. As you progress through the game you enter wonderland and find places that mirror the real world areas except now they are brightly coloured and everything is vivid and vibrant. This contrast gives a really magical feel to wonderland within the game and really distinguishes the worlds.
Having this distinction in colour and tone within the world I think will give my piece an interesting feel and really make it clear to the person within the experience that they have been transported from the boring normal forest within my idea into a magical enchanted one that will take them on a journey. I will also be making use of transitions within my piece to teleport the viewer to different locations e.g back to the starting table to reduce any disorientation between locations. I will also be making use of some premade assets within my piece, such as the forest landscape, to improve the quality of the piece and allow me to focus more on the experience itself and how smoothly the animations run.
References:
Anon., 2021. Alice: Madness Returns [online]. Alice Wiki. Available at: https://alice.fandom.com/wiki/Alice:_Madness_Returns [Accessed 2 Nov 2021].
DesertBell., 2011. My Review of Alice: Madness Returns. Razorblade Sammich [online]. Available at: https://razorbladesammich.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/alice-madness-returns/ [Accessed 2 Nov 2021].
Timlah, A., 2017. Video Game Reivew – Alice: Madness Returns. GeekOut UK [online]. Available at: https://geekoutuk.com/2017/09/18/video-game-reivew-alice-madness-returns/ [Accessed 2 Nov 2021].