Interactive
theme park rides are an unusual breed of entertainment experience. Half
video game, half dark ride, interactive rides have their own unique rules
about what makes a good show. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean - Battle
for the Buccaneer Gold now at Disney Quest has been called "the
best use of VR in an entertainment application - ever". This paper
will discuss the tools, techniques, technology, psychology, and serendipity
that made Pirates a hit. It will also outline general guidelines
for creating interactive theme park attractions.
Key Ideas
- Interactive
theme park rides are not video games, not rides, but a new medium.
- Intuitive
user interfaces are crucial for interactive theme park rides.
- Put more
emphasis on the real experiences, and less emphasis on virtual ones.
- People
go to theme parks in small groups to have shared experiences together.
Interactive theme park rides should be designed around this fact.
- Iterative
design is crucial when creating new types of interactive experience.
Interactive
theme park rides are not video games, not rides, but a new medium.
What makes designing interactive theme park rides difficult is that design
skills necessary for traditional video games or theme park rides do not
always apply in this new medium, and at times can actually work against
you. Common video game metaphors such as cut scenes, life meters, restarting
levels, and joystick interfaces are not familiar to the average group
of Disney theme park goers. The traditional arcade way of learning a game
by wasting a few quarters learning the rules and interface and then pumping
more quarters in to continue is not feasible with an hour line waiting
to play.
Because
these rides are interactive, the guest is in control of their own destiny.
This means the game needs to reward success and punish failure. Typical
theme park attractions do not have this design constraint. On a Disney
attraction, even losing must be entertaining.
The fact
that Pirates is interactive and virtual carries with it an expectation
that it will be a video game. Many guests, especially parents, have an
anxiety towards video games, believing that only kids will understand
or do well at them. Pirates overcomes this expectation with a fun, novel
interface and game system that does not require any previous gaming knowledge.
Pirates
Overview
Pirates is an interactive theme park ride based on the classic
Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland. With themes and inspiration
taken from the ride, this virtual interactive experience treats four guests
to an overwhelming immersive adventure on the high seas. With one guest
steering at a real helm, the other three guests man six real cannons to
defeat virtual enemy pirate ships, forts, sea monsters and ghostly skeletons
to collect and defend as much gold as possible in the five minute experience.
Pirates uses wrap-around 3D screens, 3D surround sound, and a motion platform
boat to fully engage the guest as a pirate. Currently Pirates is
open at DisneyQuest, Disney's virtual theme park venue, in Orlando and
Chicago.
Interactive
rides: A delicate balance.
At every turn, the design of Pirates was driven by the need to
balance between letting the guests have control over their adventure,
and making sure that each adventure is a great one. Here are the solutions
we found to some of the problems created by this balancing act.
Problem: The captain
might steer the ship to dull places.
We solved
this problem with several techniques:
- "Architectural
Weenies"
"Weenie" is phrase coined by Walt Disney himself. It refers
to the technique used on movie sets of guiding stage dogs by holding
up part of a sausage. The classic "weenie" is the castle at
Disneyland. It draws the eye, and the eye draws the feet, and people
walk to the castle at the center of the park. In the case of Pirates,
we had three main "weenies", one for each island: a volcano,
an enormous fort, and a plume of smoke coming from a burning town. No
matter which way the boat is facing, at least one of these "weenies"
is in view. Since the coolest action takes place at the islands, we
want to guide the captains to go there.
- Guide
Ships
Since the short-term goal of the game is to fire on other pirate ships,
captains strive to get near these ships so that their gunners can get
a clear shot. Many of the ships in the Pirates world are "on
their way" to the islands mentioned above. Many captains, in just
trying to stay near these ships find that just as they have destroyed
the ship, they have arrived at one of the islands, without even trying
to get there.
-
Sneak attacks
But what if the captain ignores the guide ships? Even if he heads toward
one of the "weenies" it might mean as long as a minute during
which the gunners have little to shoot at. For this reason, we created
special "sneak attack" ships that "magically" appear
behind the players ship, and quickly pull up along side, when no other
boats are in range.
- "The
Waterspout"
This was our nickname for our "last ditch" forcefield that
surrounds the gameplay area. If a captain tries to sail out of the main
gameplay area and out to open sea, they hit the forcefield, and the
ship is "magically" pointed back to where the action is. The
few guests who see this don't even realize that anything unusual has
happened. They are just pleased to have their boat going somewhere cool.
Problem: The pacing
of the adventure needs to build to a climax, while still making the guests
feel in control of their destiny.
The initial
hook of the adventure is in the form of a non-interactive sequence where
Jolly Roger the Ghost Pirate explains the roles of the captain and gunners,
encourages the players to sink many pirate ships in order to get their
gold, and then does a 3D close up gag, followed by a motion base gag.
After that, the guests are in complete control, and the pacing of the
show is mostly governed by the weenies, the guide ships, and the sneak
attacks. These combine to give a nice balance between action, and short
periods of calm. Guests fight the guide ships, the sneak attack ships,
and the ships in other interesting encounters at the islands. Each island
is a scenario, with a little story and a couple secrets:
In the "burning
town" island, guests fight other pirate ships while sailing through
a narrow canal with buildings and frantic townspeople on either side.
At the end of the canal an enemy ship loaded with dynamite blocks the
way.
In the "volcano"
island, guests fight other pirate ships, but can also get bonus treasure
by firing on the "treasure troves" on shore. This scenario has
two possible endings. Either the volcano blows up (and blows you back
out to sea) or the captain discovers the secret waterfall lagoon, which
ends with the ship going over a waterfall, but "magically" falling
back to the main gameplay area.
In the "fort"
island, guests are attacked with fireballs by soldiers at the fort. An
enormous gold ship (hard to sink, but worth many points) is just setting
sail, guarded by navy ships.
There is
only time to visit one or two of these islands in the five minute adventure,
which lends to replay value.
To make
the journey from one island to another more exciting than just a long
sequence of sneak attack ships, we introduced a sea serpent, who attacks
the ship. We timed his appearance carefully, so that some variety is provided
just when it is needed. Most guests mistakenly believe that they "found
him", which is great, because it is exactly what we want them to
think.
We couldn't
figure out how to guarantee the guests would find their way to an exciting
climax, so we made the climax come to them. Jolly Roger (the host from
the beginning) appears suddenly after four and a half minutes, and it
turns out that he only encouraged you to do battle and gather gold so
that he could steal it from you. A battle against Jolly Roger's ghost
ship and dozens of flying skeletons then ensues as our ship races past
jagged rocks. The host turning out to be the villain is a great surprise
for the guests, and provides great storytelling economy, as one character
wears two important hats. The experience ends one of two ways: either
the guests defeat Jolly Roger, and enter a victory lagoon where they can
now shoot fireworks from their cannons, or Jolly Roger defeats the guests,
and our boat explodes as giant skulls swirl around us, and we sink to
the bottom of the ocean where sharks swim over our wreckage.
Both endings
are exciting, but the lose ending is really the more exciting one, to
help compensate for the fact that the guests just lost the game. This
way, even if you lose, you feel pretty good, because the whole thing was
just so cool.