Time Slices – Space Slices
This section is to explain how I will go about creating this template.
The template will need to be designed to cover a variety of sites such as Ruins, Temples, Chateaux, Listed Buildings, Castles and Monuments and be able to be adapted to their own relevant slices of history.
It will be designed as a series of informative, exploratory and interactive CD’s or DVD’s to be used either as Historical Guides or Educational Aids, which are now termed as ‘Edutainment’.
On further brain storming after discussions with Trevor and Russell, I have decided that the template will work best from the Resident’s angle, i.e. the time slice will be based on the different important residents throughout the lifetime of the site. For an example, an owner who has redesigned the property, internally or externally, or an owner who withstood a siege or battle. Floor plans might also affect the basis of the time slices for the individual properties. Most properties will have a set of floor plans at different stages through the ages and these would be necessary in order to build detailed modelling of the site. This will need to be considered at the same time as choosing the characters.
The navigational scroll will therefore be based on these important characters as a primary navigation. From each character rolls out a generic navigation, as indicated on the diagram below:
Navigational test – Wilson 2002
The generic navigation roll-outs will be (as yet in no particular order)
Battle Tales – covering items such as defence and siege
Entertainment – covering story-telling, jousting etc.
Trades/Skills – covering markets, crafts etc.
Location – 3D bird’s eye views, maps etc.
Food and Drink
Health – covering medicines, plagues, gruesome operations etc.
Costume – covering hierarchy of dress etc.
Transport
The main navigational characters will also have a section about them, describing who they are, how they came to be there etc., but will also have a voice over – particular to each character will then say how the different areas were in their time.
As added value and to make the CD/DVD entertaining and exploratory, there will be game based quizzes, ‘finding’ games etc. Examples of ideas for this are as follows:
Games:
- A quiz could be devised which could be multiple choice. Depending on the score you are rated between Lord of the Castle and a revolting peasant. A gauge would be visible throughout.
- A ‘test your skill’ game, i.e. get into the castle avoiding the arrows, boulders & tar
- A game where you have to protect your castle from the revolting peasants or a war host.
- A ‘find the chalice’ type game.
- ‘Dress the knight’
The user could ‘Send a Postcard’, and/or email. If this is being run from a kiosk in a visitor centre, then the facility for paying to do this can be added, i.e. ‘put a pound in the slot’ for sending the postcard, or 50p for an email. The postcards could be works of art relevant to the place or time, therefore a gallery of images relating to the site could be made available – such as the postcards that are for sale in the visitor centre. Screen savers could be designed and supplied on the CD-ROM for the user to remind them of their visit.
The interface will need to be styled in a way that is not indicative of a particular time, and allow the relevant imagery to be placed easily. I see the template areas being the basic structure, the interface and the navigation. The imagery and content will be the changeable areas. There will also be a generic database of facts for certain time slices, video clips of jousting, battles and interior modelling / images that are not detailed to a particular place, which can be called on when relevant.
