Thread: Cool new attraction for 2007: Interactive seance!

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Howdy -

Just thought I'd share what we're doing at ImaginEERIEing for Carnival of Souls 2007.

New this year is a highly interactive attraction in our garage, in which Madame Sarita gets snatched away into the spirit world, and it is up to the kids to save her.

Basically, it's a huge cooperative video game with custom-created controllers. We have a large 4'x3' rear-projection screen built into a victorian windowbox. Sitting before the windowbox is a table with three artifacts on it:



The Palantir of Abyssinia - Filled with water dredged from the river Styx, this orb generates mystical energy when one of the kids waves his or her hands over it. An orb on screen fills with green energy as the mana builds.

The Skull of Rasputin - One child lays hands upon the skull and moves it around the table to control a targeter on the screen.

Four Casting Cards of Marie Laveau - A third child merely need hover a hand over the appropriate card to cast the related spell into the spirit world.

(In the photo, you can also see the laptop that is going to control the game, along with the controllers. The laptop screen is showing the configuration screen that allows us to adjust the settings for sensing when the kids are hovering their hands over the cards, waving their hands over the orb, and detecting where the skull sits on the table.)

As the players plunge into the spirit world, they work together to fight off hordes of ghosts, spiders, zombies, etc., as they try to rescue Madame Sarita from the clutches of the Evil Marius Blackwood.

Here's a shot of the window box under construction (it's further along than this now, but I don't have a shot of its current state):



And here's a shot of the gameplay:



If we have time, we're going to have a little area outside where a custom version of Gordo will announce and display changes to the leader board outside the attraction.

Oh man... I wish I lived closer to you, Neph!

That is just awesome!

Here are some more screenshots from the attraction based on my work tonight:



(Note: The ghost and the spiders are programmer art. I have some local animators who will be contributing some better-looking monsters than these...heh.)

I'm getting pretty jazzed about this. The controls really do feel mystical, because you don't even touch them. Except for the Skull of Rasputin, which you can pick up and wave around in the air and it still controls the targeter. It's like there's an otherworldly presence looking over your shoulder as you play...

I hope the kids like it, and that we can accommodate all our visitors with a game. If the adults try to play with the kids, I think it will bog down, but if we just let kids play and have parents watch, I think we'll be okay...

Well, the interactive seance was a hit with the kids! We had some technical difficulties early on, but we quickly got to the point where the attraction ran smoothly for the remainder of the night. The kids enjoyed it, and many came back to play it multiple times.

Here's some video of kids playing the game: check it out!

For more discussion on the game, see these blog posts: Haunted Mansion Interior for Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour, More Progress on Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour, Spirit Parlour Game Coming Along Nicely, and Sneak Peek at Carnival of Souls 2007.