The desk of archivist 1256t
This is my capstone project, which is an amalgamation of a lot of things i’ve learnt - graphic design, illustration, games, motion design etc, while pushing myself to make a immersive experience that can be contained within a desk.
The role of the player is one where they will be a new archivist in an institute that specialises in retrieving artifacts from dying/dead alternate universes. The previous archivist that you’re replacing has mysteriously disappeared, and has left one final artifact from universe 1256t unarchived - a locked box.
the theme of this project is choosing how you want to live, given the limited time we all have. this theme affects the design of various things. all the institute things have a clean and cold look and feel to them to represent their distance, universe 1256T having a more naturalistic and warm palette pre apocalypse and a colder look while still retaining pops of colours to represent the struggle to survive, and the desk itself will have both sources of cool and warm lighting, as well as small objects like artificial plants, to show the predecessor’s indecision on what way they want to live their life.
This project has many many parts. The first would be a desktop MADE IN UNITY, which will be on a crt monitor and have things like emails, files and a mysterious locked document left by your predecessor. On the desk, there are documents and photographs describing the universe where the box came from(all depressing), interviews with inhabitants, employee handbooks and access cards, and the locked box.
left to right: desktop, picture of UNIVERSE 1256T, EMPLOYEE CARD, archival form
The flow of the experience works like this. The player taps the employee card to unlock the desktop, where they will be greeted by an employee orientation video(MADE IN AFTEREFFECTS) and a message from hr explaining the situation with the predecessor(GONE) and the locked box(EXTRACTORS FORGOT TO ASK FOR THE PASSWORD WHEN IT WAS HANDED TO THEM. RESEARCHERS CAN’T THINK OF A WAY TO OPEN IT WITHOUT EXPLODING IT. PLEASE TRY TO SEE IF YOUR PREDECESSOR LEFT ANY CLUE TO THE CODE).
when players try to CLICK ON THE LOCKED DOCUMENT, THEY HAVE TO ENTER A PASSWORD KEPT IN A WORK DIARY DOCUMENT, WHERE THEY FIND A note from the previous archivist REVEALING THAT THEY ARE IN FACT, NOT DEAD. THEY JUST COULDN’T TAKE THE CALLOUS WAYS THE INSTITUTE TREATED human life, even if they were destined to end soon. the note also contains a clue that the number code to the box is in the interview with the person who gave it to them - a date they consider the best they of their life, and a request to not give the box to the archive, but to just lock it and leave it alone.
the locked box contains A VIEWFINDER, A VIEWFINDER REEL OF PHOTOS taken on that day, and a diary of one of the last nice days before that universe’s apocalypse.
photos on the viewfinder