Popular Theme Park Features
Amy researched which elements were trending in the attraction industry when creating ideas for the competition. The overarching appeal of a theme park is enabling visitors to escape reality and enter different worlds. She discovered that thrilling and immersive experiences were among the most popular with guests.
With that in mind, the pair explored creating an attraction using the latest cinematic technology, offering a new collective experience rather than an individual one. Their main challenge was creating something seamless, sustainable, and entirely immersive from the moment guests entered the experience and, more crucially, one that could be continually updated and changed.
This made them think, what if they could create a water boat ride that would travel to several unique worlds?
Introduction & Back Story
The story behind the ride developed in tandem with their initial drawings and illustrations, although some of the story was adapted to fit the ride sequence.
Each creature has a name, and themed interpretation boards discovered along the queue line describe their habitat and characteristics.
The result was a thrilling boat ride where guests could eat, drink, socialise and shop in a beautifully themed environment.
Button Crusted Octopus
Portal Riders Overview
The Volume Screens
After boarding, the adventure boat travels along a physically themed environment before entering a digital Volume.
The ride will be thrilling without being fast-paced or causing motion sickness. Although there will be movement and water splashes, the idea is to enjoy the environment with unexpected scenes that create suspense.
Boarding and Entering the Volume
The guests board the boats in a themed boarding area, supervised by a cast member who will be in the wheelhouse of each boat for the duration of the ride.
Digital Media Rendered in Real Time
The room will have multiple floor-to-ceiling LED screens that show incredibly realistic and thrilling scenes by creating an environment around the visitors using a Volume. Interlinked computers produce the images on the wall of the Volume, and a gaming engine, such as Unreal Engine, creates constant real-time displays of the correct lighting, depth, and perspective that someone might see if that world were real.
Experience Sequence
The portal sequence is a physical effect that allows guests to travel from one world to another. The sequence will coincide with digital footage of a vortex before revealing a new landscape. As guests travel through the portal, they will see the land they are leaving disappear into the vortex, and the new world will appear.
The guest’s view from the boat will feel completely immersive as it navigates along seas and rivers.
Ugly Fish Resturant
The ride restaurant has been designed to fit around the back story of Kai’s journey to the temple, where he catches fish for the restaurant. It has a Tiki feel with a décor of cut-out bamboo, wooden carvings, lanterns, rattan furniture, tropical planting, brightly coloured fabrics, fishing nets and an abundance of unusual wooden fish.
There will be photographs of Kai and Nalu catching the exotic fish with descriptions of some of their adventures and an enormous ‘Catch of the Day’ at the front of the restaurant.
Judges
