Friday, May 11, 2012

Interactive Storybook Adventure

When you think you've seen it all, you've barely seen any of it. The brilliant minds that make-up the population of Second Life continue to astonish me with their innovation. The way that they can take the blank canvas that Second Life gives us and create something extraordinary, some of the things I find boggle my mind. Take for example, Interactive Storybook Adventure. The name, when I first read it, threw me off. What kind of story, their own story, an adapted story, how would the creator be able to do it?


Amazingly well, is how he did it. When you teleport to the land the storybook adventure takes place in, you are dropped in front of a lighthouse. Next to the door is a poster telling you the story that you will be adventuring through, "Where the Wild Things Are." Upon entering the lighthouse, a door, with the words "Max's Room" on it stand in front of you. Going through the door you are transported into Max's room. The story is being told to you through manipulation of a chat box that Second Lifers use to communicate with each other.


When you climb into Max's bed a forest slowly begins to appear around you, trees sprouting up from the floor, vines dangle down from the ceiling, the walls disappear, revealing a forest. Next thing you know, the bed shoots up, depositing you on a small circle of beach with a little red sail boat. You hop into the sail boat and make your way across the ocean.



Your boat drifts onto the shore of an unknown beach, and as you disembark a group of Wild Things comes up to greet you. Interactive Storybook Adventure is one of the coolest things I've experienced in Second Life. What could have been done very blandly, was done masterfully. Interactive Storybook Adventure felt like more of an amusement park ride than it did a virtual reality experience. It captures the feeling of Where the Wild Things are perfectly, and amazes with its presentation.




No comments:

Post a Comment