Acerca of
ALESIA'S FURY
In 2019, the Museopark of Alésia in Burgundy ordered a application visit the remains of the Gallo-Roman city. The goal is to revive and substance to this capital site of the history of France. It will be necessary close 2 years to lead this ambitious project which combines a archaeological reconstruction of the city in the 2nd century and a fantastic adventure in an antic punk universe.
ALÉSIA: A site that is difficult to read, visitors who are a little lost.
​
For the thousands of visitors who cross the barriers of the archaeological site of Alésia each year, discovering the place can be disappointing: stony paths arranged in a geometric way in the middle of a grassy expanse, no visible elevation, rare panels which come to give a little information.
There are few elements that allow the imagination to take flight.
A 5 hectare archaeological site
​
​
Unless you are keen on archeology or benefit from the mediation of a guide, the site is difficult to read. Results : most people browse the site without stopping, stay less than 30 minutes on site and do not keep an unforgettable memory. There is a form of injustice here, because in many ways, Alesia constitutes one of the most important archaeological testimonies of the Gallo-Roman world.
A visitor in a little too much of a hurry
Rebuild the ancient city
360 ° reconstruction changes with the seasons
To build this experience in superimposed reality, the first step was to reconstruct certain areas of the city in 3D (the theater, the sacred area, the public square, etc.).
The Museopark wants visitors to be able to discover Alesia as it was in the middle of the 2nd century. The tablet screen acting as a window to the past.
​
​
​
This work of several months is the result of close collaboration between graphic designers, Ohrizon developers and archaeologists. He first relied on an acquisition campaign by photogrammetry which made it possible to place in an environment 3D architectural elements still visible today.
Intermediate view that shows how the elements still visible today are associated a reconstitution 3D.
To reconstruct the volumes and the materials, an important work on the documentary and archaeological sources was carried out. Alésia is a famous site, it has been excavated many times over more than 100 years. The scientific literature is therefore abundant. This work was carried out in collaboration with a design office: Salisbury Archaeology.
​
Characters were then added, scenes of life recreated in order to support the comments that accompany the visit. Because the purpose of the application is not to make an architectural demonstration but to immerse the visitor in the daily life of the Gauls.
The project has been subject to permanent management by a scientific committee so that the hypotheses of each of the views are perfectly in line with the state of current archaeological knowledge. Down to the smallest detail. Each view is interactive and contains audio and textual.
A shopping street in the city center
THE WRITING OF FURIE D'ALESIA
Illustration: Philippe Chanteloup
in parallel at this first educational and historical component of the application, the museum park wanted to combine a playful experience in the spirit of an escape game.
Carte blanche is left to us for the writing of this screenplay. The only requirement is that it must attract a new audience. It must not contain proven historical errors but its vocation is not to be a mediation tool. For my part, I wanted to draw visitors into a dark and fantastic Alésia. And to give the story the form of an ancient tragedy.
​
here is the synopsis that visitors can discover at the entrance to the site:
Journalist, you responded to the curious posthumous invitation of a famous archaeologist to come and investigate a series of disastrous events that struck the city of Alesia in the middle of the 2nd century. Traveling through the ruins of the ancient city in the company of an Artificial Intelligence, you will exhume the fragments of a macabre news item bringing together the Roman imperial power, a powerful Gallic corporation and gods now forgotten.
A historical anchor...and a lot of freedom
Although totally fictional, I wanted the story of Furie to be based on certain archaeological elements. There is something infinitely pleasant in the fact of integrating into a romantic, living story, excavated objects usually associated with the seriousness of museums. This is notably the case of the Martialis table. In 1839, this stone stele is extracted from the basement of Alesia. Banal in appearance, it indicates that a certain Martialis offered a building in homage to the god Ucuetis in the name of the blacksmiths of Alesia. This short text is nevertheless the longest ever discovered in the Gallic language. Moreover, he confirms that the buried city is indeed the famous city where Vercingetorix laid down his arms against Caesar. It also reveals the name of a god that no one knew about before. And finally that the so-called Martialis had to be powerful or wealthy enough to offer an entire building to his trade corporation. The latter will therefore play an important role in our history. I decide to make him the declared antagonist of the hero of Furie D'Alésia.
Of the stele of Martialis
...at the app's Martialis
The story created thereafter will integrate factual elements, developing the mythological aspect against a backdrop of political rivalry to a fictional fabric straddling two eras, that of the 2nd century of Alesia and the present.
​
​
​
​
I was inspired by two ancient tragedies by Seneca, Thyestes and Medea, to give the main plot a flavor of antiquity. Alesia's hero of fury, Eberius, is thus characteristic of these tragic characters who seek by all means to escape their destiny and thus make it all the more inevitable.
EBERIUS, son of Ucuetis. pathetic hero
And on proven archaeological evidence on the witchcraft and religious practices of the Gallo-Romans. That we will find in the destiny of Octavia minor, the sacrificial and avenging heroine of our tragedy. The inscriptions found in the tomb of the Colossus are, for example, an adaptation of a real curse (lead from Chamalières) from the Gallo-Roman era.
A characteristic curse
ancient witchcraft
Finally, to create the contemporary plot of the story, that concerning Professor Stokowski, I was inspired by the whimsical and very prolific archaeologist of the beginning of the 20th century, Major Emile Espérandieu, whose excavations carried out at Alésia are still a reference today.
Ernest Stokowski
A hybrid adventure between the police investigation and the escape game
My wish was not to make a classic escape game but rather to tell a strong story in a very particular space by using certain game mechanics of the escape game to maintain the interest of the players. One of the constraints requested by the Museopark was also to leave the players free of their course and therefore to let them discover the different scenes of the story in a random order. The choice of the police investigation is a response to this constraint. Players discover 360° scenes from the past in the places where they occurred (in front of the sacred area, in the craftsmen's quarter, etc.) and each time accumulate clues that will lead them to solve the initial mystery. This approach makes it possible to actively involve the players in the story and prevents it from falling apart in the sometimes long movements that separate two scenes.
?
Who killed the Colossus of Alesia? the players have 90 minutes to find out
Finally, to create the interface with the players we let's invent an Artificial Intelligence capable of visually giving shape (thanks to AR and the tablet) to characters from the past. And to anchor everything in this alternate reality, we welcome the visitor with an AR dive into a fake burial chamber covered with mysterious inscriptions, the discovery of which is corroborated by fake press articles.
​
To complete the adventure, players must completely complete a digital notebook which summarizes the information associated with each of the protagonists. At the end of the course, they are able to reconstruct the circumstances of the death of the Colossus of Alesia. The entire experience is punctuated by a 90-minute countdown .
360° views are interactive. Clues allow the player to reconstruct the last day of the colossus of Alesia