The Objectives:
The original prompt from which this project would spring was to propose an expansion for EPCOT’s World Showcase area that would appeal to family demographics utilizing the Percy Jackson IP. Our team set out to meet this challenge by creating a highly interactive multi-area walkthrough attraction, similar to Tom Sawyer Island in the Magic Kingdom, We were also tasked with incorporating a character meet-and-greet, along with interactive water features similar to the Journey of Water Moana attraction (also at EPCOT). We were also inspired by the likes of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and Avengers Campus to create a highly immersive experience for the area with a variety of facets to explore inspired by different aspects of the source IP.
In January of 2024 I participated in a winter study away program through the Miami University Department of Emerging Technology in Business and Design to spend a week at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida studying the history and methodologies of entertainment design as exemplified by Walt Disney Imagineering. The attached course continued for the rest of the winter term, during which I was placed on a team and tasked with designing a hypothetical expansion for one of the Disney Parks. The result was The Olympus Pavilion, a concept for an addition to the World Showcase at EPCOT themed around the recent Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series. I served as the lead Narrative Designer for the project. Cover image by Ben Trader.
Take a look at the pitch slides here
Read my Story Document here
Read the teams Design Document here
The Team:
Lucas Orlando - Model Lead
Ben Trader - Co-Art Lead
Ethan Schmidt - Co-Art Lead
My Contributions:
As the Narrative Designer on the project, I steered much of the concepting phase, leading the process of curating a mood board and playlist to capture the tone of the experience, writing our story document, and working with artists to synthesize our work into storyboards. I guided much of the theming and the overarching story for the whole of the experience, as well as designing the mockup UI depicted next to this text for the Mythomagic inspired AR game using official promotional material from Disney and Hyperion for the PJO franchise. I also penned the section of the Design Document pertaining to this, as well as much of the analysis of the area’s current state and the analysis of Tom Sawyer Island.
(Art by Ben Trader)
The Processes:
We began by researching and analyzing the pre-existing attractions and experiences within the World Showcase, as well as attractions elsewhere on Disney property that bore similarity to our conceptual vision of this project, as mentioned in the objectives, and the various ways they succeed in engaging audiences. As a team, we then devised a large number of possibilities for for sub-attractions to populate our experience and eventually narrowed to a select few, including a labyrinth to be explored, a Poseidon-themed splash pad, and several others included in the final project. After this blue sky phase, we moved through periods of conceptualization (during which much of the narrative planning on my part took place), feasibility (assembling the model and diagrams of the layout), and ultimately final synthesis into the proposed pitch deck and design document.
