Scenarios for Extended Reality (XR) applications
These are hybrid experiences at the crossroads of life-size role-playing games and adventure video games, treasure hunts and tour guides, which rely on the technologies available in smartphones or tablets.
From technologies already old
This genre, still little known to the general public, was born about fifteen years ago with the spread of the use of smartphones and tablets and has evolved with them. Some of the first projects in which I participated could contain only audio tracks, then very quickly multimedia elements, photos, videos. But it was with the arrival of superimposed reality that things really changed, when the accelerometer present in smartphones made it possible to discover sections of a 360° image by rotating on oneself, by raising or lowering his arms.
This made it possible to unite, through movement, the player's body, virtual and real space. New tool, new way of telling stories.
Today augmented reality technologies are reaching a sufficient state of solidity for us to rely on them to tell untold stories whereas not so long ago, the bugs, the instabilities of the images integrated into the real could frankly destroying the experience.
The castle of Cherbourg in RA, in 2013. Already
Real and virtual space
When I design these scenarios, I try to immerse the players in inspiring stories, without disconnecting them from the space in which they move. This is really what makes the specificity of this genre compared to video games and it is a delicate exercise because the screen of the tablets and the physical environment lead a tough fight to capture the attention of the visitor and if the one outweighs the other, it fails. The ideal is to find a point of balance where the real and the virtual nourish each other and join forces to propel our imagination to new levels.
The special case of cultural visit scenarios
We've all noticed it: the fictional stories that accompany visits to tourist or cultural sites are generally boring. These stories are usually treated as simple narrative veneer aimed at children. It's unfortunate, because on the one hand it's not just children who like stories and on the other hand it underestimates the infinite educational potential of a catchy story which predisposes even the most more tricky to open up to the most cutting-edge knowledge. The lack of interest in these stories is rarely due to the laziness of the authors but most often to shyness and fear of departing from the convention of museum seriousness. Sometimes, even when all the best wills in the world are united, these alternative narratives fail to captivate because they take the problem from the wrong end. They consider that the story is a pretext to highlight a place, when in reality it is the place that should be a pretext to tell a story...
We don't tell the same story
in the city
or under the snow
to the beach
Create a story that grows organically…
To create a story that does not give the impression of having been mechanically written to align compulsory scientific content, the author must first be passionate about the cultural or tourist site he wants to talk about. To write a tailor-made story, you have to read. Many.
Then discuss at length, with all those who participate in the life of this cultural site: scientific mediators, specialists, curators... Immerse yourself completely in the universe that must be presented in order to find the little buried, neglected fact that will be able once added with a dose of fiction to ignite the imagination of visitors by aggregating around it in a natural way, whole and important sections of the more "official" history of the place considered.
Adapted to media…
Once the synopsis has been validated and the universe defined (the era, the characters, the atmosphere...) then begins the long work of adaptation to the media used (is it a game? An interactive story In augmented reality? In audio? Are visitors' mobiles or dedicated devices used? What is the quality of network coverage on site? Each media has its grammar, its limits and its strengths.
and the visiting environment!
With the increased possibilities of touch tablets for visits, we must beware of the temptation to overload it with unsuitable content that will keep visitors' eyes perpetually riveted on their screen. The purpose of a digital mediation tool must be to guide the visitor's gaze in his environment (otherwise what's the point of moving around?). A work of spatialization of the story must then be implemented.
For the author, this consists of soaking up the space for a long time (whether it is a few rooms of a small museum or hundreds of hectares of a natural park), of getting into the step of the visitor, to identify the most frequented or most isolated places, the most evocative or the most impressive, then define which place will be the most conducive to the unveiling of the plot, another to contemplation, another upon receipt of a denser amount of information.
One murder in AR near this lonely column would the most beautiful effect, right?
A visit space is never homogeneous, a good visit scenario always incorporates this constraint.