Omniversal Escapade
The Protagonist Experience Within an Attraction Narrative
NYU Shanghai IMA Capstone Project by Elise Truchan
Exploring the translation of narrative into a theme park attraction format while understanding how to make the audience feel like the protagonist in their own adventure.
Narratives in any form strive to bring the audience into the world that they are creating and make the audience feel as though they have a part in that world. When a narrative is translated to a theme park attraction it is condensed and only explores a fraction of the world built in the narrative. Too often theme parks focus on how many guests can rotate through an attraction per hour rather than the individual experience that is created with the story and the guest’s placement within it. Individual emotions when experiencing an attraction with other people are overridden by the group’s emotion.
The Protagonist Experience strives to make each guest feel like they are the main character in their own story by having the unexpected twist of being separated from the group. After being separated they are unable to rely on the safety and shared ‘fun fear’ of the group and must venture into their own adventure as the sole experiencer. Omniversal Escapade is a theory of how the Protagonist Experience can be translated to the narrative within a theme park attraction. Taking into consideration limitations of an attraction (ex. guests flow, accessibility, young guests) the integration of physical and digital elements (spatialization of tangible sets and screen displays), and attraction stages (ex. queue, pre-show, loading zone, ride, and exit), my project is portrayed through an audio narrative and physical model of the attraction’s design. While Omniversal Escapade is meant to be in large scale format of a theme park attraction, its current format of the audio narrative and model has been created to focus on the narrative and design elements highlighted in the Protagonist Experience theory. This original world-building story is centered around the destruction of the omniverse. A group of experts on the various dimensions, as in the guests riding the attraction, are called to traverse the omniverse and stop the Nylus Dimension from invading the other dimensions. During their journey they are unexpectedly split up and must take on the main character mantle in each of their stories until they reunite and are able to share their individual adventures with each other. The audio narration is recorded by voice actors and edited using Audacity Software. The physical model is a mix of static interior design, LEDs to guide the audience, and controls for which the audience makes their seat and final decision choices.
The fascinating point of this project is that Omniversal Escapade is only one translation of the theory of the Protagonist Experience. This theory can be explored and adapted to multiple attraction narratives so that each guest experiencing the attraction has a unique point of view that they can share from a first person perspective with the other members of their party. This furthers the discussion about the design of the attraction and creates a longer lasting impact on the guests rather than a typical one and done linear attraction.
Process of Creation
Interior Designs
Narrative Controls
Omniversal Escapade Presentation
Omniversal Escapade Presentation Video
Omniversal Escapade Logbook
P5.JS Code
Physical Computing Arduino Code
The persons and events in this original story, Omniversal Escapade, are fictitious. Any similarities to actual persons or events is unintentional. Sound files from freesound.org were used without copyright infringement. Voice actor labor was given freely and did not harm any persons in the making. Subsequent aid with coding on P5.JS and Arduino was open source and references from (https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/basics/Fade) and (https://editor.p5js.org/nun.fall202/sketches/vLfB-Sr3f) were made without legal ramifications. Any other aid, physical or knowledge-wise, was given and used freely without constraints. This original story and its components including terms, names, and attraction design are protected under creative law.
