VILLERS SLATE
The project: one of the largest Cistercian abbeys in the world wishes to offer its visitors the opportunity to discover, through a visit application, a site which extends over several hectares and a history which covers nearly 8 centuries. The application should occupy children, but also interest parents and teenagers. Games should be fun while being educational.
One job It took several months to bring Villers Abbey back to life in 3D, the magnificent remains of which bear evocative testimony to Cistercian architecture.
A scenario to draw visitors into the secrets of monastic life in the 13th century
the conservative of the abbey as well as the educational team wanted the visit app to be more than just an augmented audioguide.
We therefore decided to place at the heart of the application a fictional story, with rather dark hues which allows to aggregate in a free and natural way contents of a more scientific nature. This also makes it possible to involve the younger generations. We are leave alone total freedom of writing provided that the screenplay makes it possible to integrate certain obligatory themes of history and monastic life which nevertheless extends over /. almost 1000 years.
A mysterious fact
Vs _
Gobert the Destroyer
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By consulting the annals of the abbey, I quickly get to know Gobert d'Aspremont. This monk praised for his holiness was previously a powerful Lorraine lord, fiery and combative. who decides on his return from the crusade, to suddenly abandon his possessions and enter monastic orders.
Gobert the Most Holy
A not innocent pebble
This radical conversion is strange enough that we decide to make it the starting point of our plot: This man discovered a monstrous thing in the holy land (the hammer of Cain) which he brought with him. He then sought the protection of the Abbey of Villers. Then he died there. And a few decades later, his secret came to the surface...
The spirit of the place and of the game
We needed a character who spans the centuries and who can speak to today's visitor. Hard to resist the temptation to create a ghostly being. Especially since its appearance ethereal and floating will marry perfectly with the augmented reality option we have chosen to make it communicate with visitors
The visitor meets Odelin in augmented reality
Since it must by its history make it possible to approach
some themes obligatory: monastic life, architecture, pharmacopoeia...
I turn to a candid character who would discover
this universe at the same time as the visitor. It could have been a young novice, it will be an apprentice journeyman builder. Odelin Pitrou.
A handy ghost
We then decide to have this unfortunate apprentice builder of the 13th century assassinated and to make him wander in the form of a spirit in the silent alleys of the abbey for centuries. We add to his ordeal a form of partial amnesia which prevents him to remember the circumstances of his death. It is up to the visitor to help him in this enterprise.
A privileged witness to the life of the monks, he is an inexhaustible source of information for visitors, revealing aspects of daily life while providing his knowledge as a builder on the architecture of the building. This character first appears in augmented reality to the visitor, in transparency, like a ghostly appearance, then as we progress in the game, we reveal aspects of his past life in the form of an interactive comic book while the version in Ghost's AR gains consistency.
Articulate a story with the different points of interest of the site and the themes of the visit
This is where the fictional narrative approach reveals its interest in scientific mediation. The story is gripping enough that audiences will want to solve the mystery of Odelin's death. Visitors must then explore the entire site of the Abbey and solve puzzles that are systematically designed to arouse their interest in a given theme (architecture, monastic life, history, pharmacopoeia, etc.) and encourage them to carefully observe their environment.
The monks also had a sign language
For those who wish to deepen their knowledge, many additional contents are proposed to them (video, 3D animation, audio…) in relation to the enigma which they have just solved or the fragment of the history of Odelin revealed.
The whole forms a coherent and harmonious system that allows visitors to move smoothly from a playful phase to a phase of learning or discovery of the places to progress in the scenario. It also allows different levels of reading and visit and is aimed at both the youngest and adults.