Note: These concepts were developed for Envy, an experiential agency, for their client, Warner Brothers Games and their presence at E3!, the international gaming industry conference in LA.

 

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WB Games E3! 2019
Queuing Engagements

The following concepts are based on a propose “Queuing strategy”– wherein the line leading to each theater is blocked into two groups that equal the number of people that can fit into the theater and that they are entertained as a group without being able to see the next stage. We eliminate the need for a single-file line and reduce the wait to a three step queue-tainment experience: 3. Orientation, 2. On-deck, 1. Theatrical Experience. The reduction of steps from the number of individuals in line ahead of you to 3 steps, and the fact that you’re entertained while waiting, will make the psychological time felt considerably shorter, while increasing the feeling of immersion in each game world.

At the entrance to each 3-staged immersive experience stands a “Barker.” This character, pulled from each game world, will entice passersby to enter the portal to their game’s world. The exit from each theatrical experience should dump visitors back into this area so that they can be enticed by another Barker to sample another world.

Cyberpunk 2077

This game is a first-person shooter Open World RPG. Because there is a trailer and a 48-minute gameplay video online, we can assume that enthusiasts will be at least a little bit aware, or somewhat familiar with the world the game takes place in.

Barker Possibilites

• • Corporate Agent – The corporation is the top-tier of power in this world.
  • Wilson the Night City Gunsmith – just skimmed by in the demo, but he is essentially a neighborhood arms dealer.
  • Jackie, your shooting buddy – he is on your team and helps you accomplish your mission.
  • Dexter, the Fixer. He is a Night City gangster that gives you missions and pays you off. He has a gold mechanical arm.

 

Stage 3: Engagement

• • Watson Megabuilding Timeshare Pitch: A deep orientation to the world of Nightcity, and Watson in particular in the form of a pitch to rent an apartment or buy a timeshare in one of the new megabuildings. The pitch person could be an enhanced real person, or a virtual person that appears on various screens, and interactive displays. Watson is a high-crime area, but still, everyone wants to be there.
    • There could be AR maps of the area and building – the game uses “Shards” which are like chips you insert into your head. If we created AR headsets with ports at the back, we could simulate this for our guests.
    • Citizens of NightCity PhotoOp– To explain the cool crowd population features of the game, the visitor could be asked to pose for a visitor ID card. Doing so could provide a sharable photo pic, but even cooler, since the game isn’t released, the faces could perhaps be added into the actual game – meaning that, while playing in the future you might run into your realworld twin.
    • Meet your Neighbors – Touchscreen accessed Video Profiles of the residents and neighborhood amenities, Crime and other NightCity statistics

Stage 2: Engagement

• • Watson Magami Market Street Concourse: Watson’s street is filled with merchants and shopfronts. After the timeshare pitch the attendees could be invited to visit some of the local merchants and to sample some of the local flavor. These booths and kiosks could introduce certain characters and rules of the Cyberpunk 2077 world.

    If this is set up as an open concourse, the extended space down hallways and outside could be created with a painted scenic with false perspective, or better yet, LED tiles that allow for the animated signage, and crowd flows. Some of the places in the room you’d be able to visit might include:

    • Nicola Machine – Nicola is a energy drink dispensed from a machine. We could have one that works.
    • “Eddies” currency exchange. Eddies are the slang for Euro-Dollars, the currency in NightCity. But they are stored on chips, not cash. E3! Attendees could scan their badge and check their account. In the process we gather information, and perhaps customize the display. It might show fictional bank accounts with real names, and then, all of a sudden, someone hacks into the system and either puts money into or takes money out of their “account” – these could be redeemed for discounts, sweepstakes entry and later ingame purchases.
    • Boxing Demo: Seen in the background in a bunch of shots in the concourse and on both Dr. Victor’s and Dex’s TV, humans are in boxing matches with machines. We can stage one of these with two people in costumes, one playing the machine, and invite people to bet on the outcome on touch screens. AR tablets or monitors on swivel posts could allow viewers to “scan” the boxers for their enhancement stats.
    • Ripperdoc Clinic Photo Op. Ripperdocs are the back-alley doctor/technicians who sell cyber enhancements. Dr. Victor has a blue dentist chair like lounger that his patients sit in. We could invite people to sit in these and, using Kinect, greenscreen gloves and eyepatches, and AR Snapchat style tech, allow them to have cyber enhancements added. These would be visible to the “patient” and viewers through a monitor, which could capture some pics and video for sharing.
    • Wilson’s Gunshop: As I mentioned earlier, Wilson is a street-level arms dealer. He seemingly has an electronic billboard advertising his wares. Why not expand this to an interactive storefront/shooting gallery where, through gestures, and controllers, you can select and fire weapons in a virtual shooting range. Each exchange could end up with you not having the money to buy it.
    • News Kiosk. TV is ever-present in this world. Videos from law enforcement waring about the activities of certain unsavory classes of people (Psycho Borgs) can give us a better sense of the threats in this world.

Stage 1: Masala Studio Tour

• • Though it is not mentioned, I notice that outside our player’s apartment in Watson is a building called, Masala Studios. Perhaps the final “theatrical” part of this experience could be within. It could be set up as a high-tech entertainment theater, or a production studio on which our visitors are going on a tour. In either case, it can have a stage and a screen (360º would be ideal) for the presentations in the round.

 

 

Harry Potter – The Magic Awakens

This RPG is set in the mid 19^th century, almost 100 years before Harry attends Hogwarts, and 50 years before the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them stories. While it takes place at Hogwarts and the surrounding area, it is unclear how many things we associate with that world will exist or exist in the way we expect them to be in this game.

Barker Possibilities

• • Religious Nut– A Muggle warning of the evils of magic and trying to warn us to not go inside – though of course everything they describe is exactly what we’d like to see.
  • Snake Oil Salesman – Another Muggle, or is he, who describes a tonic he’s selling and all the wonderful things it will help you to see (the parallel world of magic).
  • A Street Person/Wizard- Is he or she crazy or really trying to tell us that we are magic and belong with those beyond the threshold.

Stage 3 Engagement:

• • The 19^th Century Muggle World – Though we don’t know for sure we’ll assume that this is set in England’s Muggle World, not NYC (Fantastic Beasts). London in the mid 1800s was a booming city, but also filled with dirty slums, and unsavory characters (Think Dicken’s Oliver Twist). In the “foreground” we can recreate a street scene that features key fixtures of this world.
    • A Politician making a stump speech about the wonders of the industrial revolution and modern technology.
    • Religious Canvassers trying to keep the citizens on the straight and narrow path.
    • Street Urchins begging and performing for money.
    • Unusual sights of the times –
      • Swooning Couches – It was customary to pass out to respond to bad news or moral scandal.
    • Doctor’s Office
      • Cornflakes as medicine.
      • Swallowing tape worms to keep a trim figure
      • Dentures from Corpse Teeth
      • Sleeping with raw meet tied to your face
    • Fashion Boutique
      • Wearing your dead husband’s hair as a wig and fashion accessory.
      • Arsenic Complexion Soap. WTF
    • In the background of these activities, the scenery moves, occasionally, in magical ways:
      • Magical doorways open that characters slip into, and close again.
      • Covers slip off of street merchant’s carts to reveal very exotic creatures underneath it.
      • Chimney Sweeps visible through a window get sucked up the flue in a puff of pyrotechnics.
      • Creatures lurking in the Sewer. Steam rises from sewer grate, and tenticaled arms slither out occasionally to grab unsuspecting legs – screams.
      • A shrouded character is bumped by someone in the visitor group (a plant) and gets pulled up a wall and swallowed by it, by a character who is clearly an evil wizard in disguise.
    • Finally, a Bobby directs them to proceed to the Hogwart’s express via track 9 ¾.
      • A brick wall projected onto a curtain of steam.

Stage 2 Engagement: Hogwarts Express

• • This waiting area can be a sort of mini VR experience in that it is designed as the interior of a car on the Hogwarts Express. Outside the windows the scenery, and an occasional Dementor flies by. Inside, there are all sorts of magical items and extras in Hogwarts uniforms – as details of the new game become apparent, these can be modified to reflect these important details.
    • Kid’s with their mystical animal pets.
      • Iguanas
      • Rats
      • Snakes
      • and Owls in cages
    • Kids with wands testing their spells (against the rules) with random visitors (plants) being turned into some ghastly creature, and scurries away.
    • Older students performing close-up magic (real slight-of-hand artists).
    • Treat cart – with all manner of odd candies (many with bugs in them).
    • A potbellied Stove with some spirit (ala Sirius Black) visible in the embers.
    • Smartpaper Newspapers with the latest Hogwarts News in motion on the front page.
  • There could be two train cars, with the second being a photo op. It might be built in a forced perspective or leaning that allowed for “magical” portraits simply by donning a Hogwarts robe and by virtual of the spatial disconnects.

Stage 1: The Main Hall 

• • The train journey ends with the arrival at Hogwarts. The conductor says first years (the visitors) are invited into the main hall. Inside, are the long tables with candles floating above.
  • The stage at the front of the hall is great for human presentations. The back wall could be large LED designed to look like stone when no image is being presented.
  • This entire hall space could be simply white, allowing for full detailed projection mapping of magical effects onto the tables, walls and ceiling. The candles will create the perfect low light environment.

 

Lego Star Wars 2

 

This RPG is set in the universe of Star Wars, seen through the filter of Legos. Interpreting the lore and the epic good v evil struggle, the colorful characters, amazing technology, and bizarre lifeforms of this universe gives us plenty of ways to entertain our visitors.

 

Barker Possibilities

• Barker Droid – A common theme in the Star Wars universe is that simple and common customer engagement tasks are relegated to droids. Why not put a fully functioning droid from Star Wars universe up front to lure passersby into the experience. This droid could be voiced by, and even manipulated by a behind-the scenes actor, so that he can respond in real time to the people in its area.
• Chewy – with all the other Barkers in our experience making their explicit pitches to enter their worlds the gist will be apparent even if all the barker does is scream in Wookie.  Let’s put Lego Chewy up front and have him grunt, growl and screech while motioning the passersby through his world’s portal.

 

Stage 3 Engagement:

• Galactic Travel Agency – This first experience is an opportunity to describe the full extent of the universe presented in this version of the game. Exotic Planets (in video screen presentations), and high-tech spaceships (Lego models) can serve as visual aids for a hologram (transparent monitor) that describes all the wonderful places you can visit, things to see and do, and the means of getting there. As an added dimension, the villains of this iteration of the game could occasionally pirate the broadcast with demands, or threats.

Stage 2 Engagement:

• Spaceport Lounge – This experience builds on the prior one and provides more opportunity to riff off what we know and love about Starwars. Imagine the canteena scene from Episode IV, but at a space port. So, all the colorful characters, good and evil can be present, there could be a band, “portals” though which starships including the Millenium Falcon and Imperial Cruisers, X Wing Fighters and so on are visible. A disturbance where a Jedi has to cut off someone’s arm ( a plant in our visitor group) could occur to liven things up. Droids could scurry around the floor beeping and booping. Imperial stormtroopers could escort prisoners through. Lots of fun. These theatrics could be designed to illuminate the story arc of the game.

 

Stage 1 Engagement:

• Starship Bridge – The theater area of this title’s experience could be set up to look like the bridge on an imperial cruiser or rebel ship. In front of the stage could be droids and aliens piloting the ship, and a giant screen that looks out into space. The presentation could be formatted as if it were a briefing for assembled Rebel or Empire pilots.

 

 

Dying Light 2

 

Dying Light 2 is an RPG that takes place in the same Turkish town of Harran fifteen years after the first game. A key feature of this new version is that your choices affect the state of the world, and the balance of power between the Peacekeepers and the various factions of Survivors. Who you align with and fight against creates quantum shifts in the reality, story arcs, and the environment. This feature could be the subject of the E32019 Experience.

 

Barker(s)

 

• Peacekeeper vs Survivor – Imagine that two barkers compete to get you to pledge your allegiance and come into their audience pool. Whichever pool fills up first, is the one that gets into the theater next.

Stage 3 and 2 Engagements

• Depending on which Barker’s appeal you chose you end up in a street scene from one reality or another, listing the group you’re with as the good guys and the others as bad. Same Post-Apocalyptic Turkish Urban destruction, but two different “recruit indoctrinations.” Each can feature some key elements of the game:
  • The fight against the zombies
  • Parkour performers jumping around.
  • Weapons demos and fighting tips
  • Propaganda speeches

Stage 1 Engagement

• This theatrical experience could be set in a Harran street scene with a makeshift stage (common in the trailers). Big screens could be embedded into the sides of decaying buildings. Projections of circling flocks of scavenger birds over scenic backdrops will complete the immersion.