Steps
Overview
Icare is a Transmedia Experience, exploring the history and experience of one of Angoulême's historic figures, André Guillaume Resnier de Goué.
André Guillaume Resnier de Goué was a brigade general under Napoleon's reign. During is retirement, he built machines and tried to fly with them.
During his third attempt in 1801 at the age of 71 years, he jumped from Angouleme's rampart and flew for over 300 meters. he only broke his leg during landing.
he is considered has one of the fathers of aviation and gliding.
The player had to go through a 10 min walk starting were Resnier made his last jump and ending where he landed. The walk was punctuated by 7 steps. Each step was based on Resniers' experience.
Achieving each step allowed the player to collect tokens that were needed to unlock the final act.
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At first reach out the sky with his arm.
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Then lower his arm to work on concrete solutions.
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And finally lower again his arm, look down and test his work
As one of the two project originator, we came with the idea of a statue on top of the rampart were Resnier made his last jump.
We wanted the experience to be punctuated by steps.
As a very large team, we mainly focused our efforts on crafting the statue and designing simple puzzles for the player to achieve (the full experience had to last 10 minutes)
We had to keep things very simple.
The Rampart Statue
The rabbit hole was a human sized winged statue on top of the north rampart of Angoulême.
Loudspeakers were echoing the voice of a character announcing the upcoming jump of Guillaume Resnier.
Signs on the ramparts'three were also explaining the path to follow to join the experience.
We followed the compliance theory. Very simples step at first, butrequiring more commitment as the games got on.
We chose to make 6 steps, each one based on an experience Resnier had during his last attempt.
Since the 3 first step couldn't be really challenging, I wanted them to at least be meaningful.
1_The dream of a man
Catching a high placed object, forcing the player to look at the sky
2_The machine conceptions
Turning wheels on a machine to unlock the token
3_ the jump
Localize signs in the landscape below them (making them feel vertigo) and recompose the same sequence of signs on a desk before them.
I designed these 3 steps to make the player feel what it meant to make your dream come true.
4_The fall
Drop a rock in a machine to expel a token in the air and catch it
5_Planing
keep a balloon all along the bridge.
6_the last attempt
Bring back a jar full of token from the river (During his second attempt to fly , Resniers flew for 50 meters and landed in the river.)
What really happened ?
The App
Due to school constraints the game had to take place during the working hours of two days of the week.
Most of the people discovering the game were retired and not really eager to discover Resniers'History.
We had most of our players during lunch break and later in the evening before we had to stow the material.
We had almost 30 players. None of them failed at any steps and everyone felt completely delighted by the experience !
Many people came asking us how long the game would stay, but since we were using school material we couldn't go on for the week end.
Definitely a mistake we will avoid next time !
The player's journey was also guided by an optional Smartphone App
Small Icons on the posters allowed the players to unlock new content and learn more about Guillaume Resniers'life
The Final Scene
During his last landing, Resnier broke his leg
The last scene was happening to the rivers'dyke.
A cut leg was lying on a wooden crate.
The leg was marked by the 6 icons the players had collected in the shape of token. Each token had a number. The player had to reconstruct the icons' sequence by touching each icon in the right order. Audio feedbacks were guiding the player along the challenge.
Succeeding in this task allowed Resnier to make his last jump.The players were given binoculars to watch as the statue on top of the rampart unfolded her wings. In the meantime, loud speakers near the river were echoing an epic sound.
Then an actor guarding the last scene was drawing the player's attention to another statue hidden in the tall grass.
Resniers'Tale was over
