The desk of Archivist 1256T

Programs

Unity, AfterEffects, Photoshop, Indesign

What this is

This is my capstone project, an immersive experience that let players step into the shoes of a new archivist at an institute that travels to dying universes to extract artifacts and materials. The previous archivist has mysteriously disappeared, and has seemingly left some clues for his successor to uncover a choice that must be made…

This immersive experience includes a Unity game acting as a terminal, as well as physical files that act as puzzles. There are also fun little elements, such as unlocking the terminal with the employee key card and an RFID reader, as well as a viewfinder of pictures from alternate universes.

theme

The Terminal(Made in Unity) and the RFID Employee card that unlocks it.

Concept Art of The Desk

How do we handle the proof that someone ever existed? How do we choose to live our lives after that?

Some Illustrations for the Viewfinder

The Institute’s Orientation Video, made in After Effects. Made to be watched on a CRT Monitor. Voiceover by Grace Lu

process

The idea for an interactive and immersive experience that is constrained to a single desk is one born out of necessity. Our capstone exhibition is highly constrained by space, and thus the idea of having it set in a single desk was born.(My initial idea was having an escape room in a porta potty, but it turns out that is both a fire hazard and a hazard to my bank account).

The main problem I wanted to challenge myself with is how to combine the physical and the digital together. Historically, I’ve kept the two quite separate. As my first immersive experience, I wanted to have the two blend together, with players having to interact with both to progress through the puzzles and the story. My solution was that the physical puzzle had digital clues, and vice versa.

There was also the incredibly fun question of deciding how different places and entities in this world should feel. I decided early on that the Institute had to have an extremely cold but falsely cheerful front, which is why the cool turquoise and the rigid line work felt like the right choice. Alternatively, the alternate Universe 1256T was warmer, and had looser brushstrokes.

The Setup