Become an employee of Spick & Spanners and help the duo “Fix Up” Bristol.
Available now on iOS and Android devices, Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is a narrative-driven interactive experience composed of CG animations, in game phone calls, comic strips, XR portals, and city-scale augmented reality elements that allow you to digitally “Fix Up” the city of Bristol, England.
Fans of the long-running comedy franchise can, for the first time, immerse themselves in the world of Wallace & Gromit as they take on the role of an employee at the duos latest business endeavor, Spick and Spanners. After the company lands a big contract to “Fix Up” the entirety of Bristol, you’ll assist the pair in sprucing up the location via city-scale AR powered by 3D mapping platform Fantasmo in combination with Unity’s AR Foundation toolkit.
The app was developed by award-winning animation studio Aardman, AR media firm Fictioneers, Sugar Creative, and Tiny Rebel Games with support from the University of South Wales.
“It was one of those really big, blank-sheet briefs which you very rarely get,” said Scott Ewings, venture lead and co-founder of Fictioneers in an official statement. “So we put together a vision for enhancing storytelling—particularly how storytelling could evolve through harnessing a whole variety of trans-media types and playing out in real time.”
According to the developers, The Big Fix Up is “an entirely home-based experience,” making it easily accessible across a wide variety of compatible devices. Thanks to the aforementioned 3D mapping technology, you can also access bring to life Bristol’s famous city center to life at home.
“Aardman is a multi-faceted creative studio and is just as happy with classic film making as it is with new and emerging technologies,” said Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham, Creative Director of Wallace & Gromit. “Wallace and Gromit’s heart and soul is in stop motion, but they have often dabbled in the cutting-edge of tech, and this is one of those occasions. We are delighted to join forces with the amazing folk at Fictioneers to take Wallace and Gromit on a new adventure in such a groundbreaking way.”
The project first came about after Fictioneers was awarded a multimillion-pound R&D grant by UKRI (as part of its Audience of the Future program) dedicated towards the development of immersive technologies. After linking up with Aardman Animations, the original studio behind Wallace & Gromit, the team settled on using its resources to bring the plus 30-year-old franchise to life in AR.
Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is available free (with in-app purchases) in the UK, US, and Canada via iOS and Android devices.
Image Credit: Aardman Animations
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