Traveling to Orlando!
This week started with great news!
One important note we got from our client last week was the possibility of integrating existing GKTW IP into our experience and theme our world around what’s in the village. Collectively, our team, our instructors, and our client thought it would be invaluable if we could actually visit the Village in-person to really get a sense of what’s there and what we’re working towards. Importantly, we felt that the earlier we could visit, the better, since the intangible information we would get from being at GKTW could influence the direction of our project. After pitching the idea to our instructors and clients we got permission from the ETC to travel to Orlando and visit Give Kids The World this weekend! We were all ecstatic about this opportunity and are excited about the potential visiting the Village provides for our project.
Quarter Presentation
While we were all set to visit our client this weekend, we also had our Quarter Presentation on Wednesday. Last week we decided on a general direction for our experience; this week we wanted to take it a step further and develop themed environments and interactions to get feedback from the ETC faculty. We are also planning to come up with new ideas after the Orlando trip, following our experience at GKTW.
We intentionally defined two drastically different ideas in order to generate more constructive, diverse feedback. The first idea is a spaceship fixing experience and the second is a forest cooking experience.
Again we put together a slide deck to present to six groups of ETC faculty.
During Quarters, the faculty encouraged us to think about aspects of the experience we had not considered in-depth. For instance, how our experience could translate to being a photo opportunity, how to make our experience more of a toy and less linear, and how to simulate projection in our VR environment (as opposed to treating it like a backlit screen).
Additionally, we were heavily cautioned on our development process and intended deliverable; being told directly that “delivering an experience in a room that doesn’t exist is impossible.” While we won’t let this dampen our spirits, especially heading into our weekend in Orlando, we are very conscious of the gargantuan task before us.
The Orlando Trip – The Prequel
With many thanks to Shirley and Chris, our team has been given the opportunity to not only visit Give Kids The World, but also Walt Disney World! With approval from Drew Davidson, Director of the ETC, our team will visit the Magic Kingdom on Sunday, following a full day at GKTW. We are incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to visit the Mouse House and incorporate our observations in location-based entertainment and theming into our team’s experience.
Our flight leaves bright and (very) early tomorrow morning! We’re looking forward to a long, but very rewarding weekend!