With most methods of transport, an automated future is predicted with cars going driverless as well as the replacement of ticket booths at London Underground train stations. With the loss of these people, how will the culture and design maintain itself in a station with no one working there? We wanted to display the amount of historical stories and events that reflect our British culture in a simple and educational interactive environment. In our current day and age, it is important to reflect on the history and culture through artwork and design that sends a message of London’s openness, internationalism, diversity, and commonality. We feel we can do this by creating an interactive story that both educates and entertains the user.
UNDER is a 2.5D dimensional interactive narrative in which you play as a young woman lost in an abandoned London Underground. Accompanying you is Met an artificially augmented personality who has become the voice of all the London underground’s technology. Unfortunately, he has had to reboot for some unknown reason and to do so he must find artifacts sprawled across the tunnels and platforms from the old to the new, exploring the rich history of the London Underground. Doing so will not only unlock more of Met’s lost memories but also real clips from archived material about the objects you find. From the age of steam trains to the automated underground we know today, will they be able to get the underground running again, or is there something deeper and darker going on?
Based on the location of the game and its significance to the British public this game’s intended audience would be those who know of the London Underground. This would limit its release to mainly a UK audience as the game contains language and accents that would only appeal to a user that understood it.
Summary of ‘Gaming Britain’ – Internet Advertising Bureau UK (2005)
32.9 million UK game players
82% of 8-65-year-olds playing games.
27.6 million adults play games
98% of children 8-15 years old play games
24% of time spent gaming is on the computer
8 in 10 would prefer to download a free game with adverts than pay
UNDER’s main demographic however would be children from 8-15 as they would benefit from the educational side of the game. Teenagers would also be a target as, at that age, they are more likely to branch out into playing indie games as opposed to mainstream games.
The London transport museum has an extensive kids section and is always trying to get kids more involved in learning about the history of London transport and even more importantly what the future could be.
Typically in school, children aged 13 start learning about world war two and this is a relevant guide for the development of our game. The game could be a way to stimulate their learning in a way that is educational but also entertaining. Potentially with enough interaction with the game and if we could receive the funding, the game could be published to a mobile platform for an increase in the number of users and the accessibility, especially for children.
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