The project
With the support of the Annenberg Foundation and the French Regional & American Museum Exchange (FRAME), director Francis Ribemont and his staff at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes (MBAR) in Brittany initiated the project to create the Room of Wonders . They wanted to create an interactive game that could be used for art education in France and the United States.
Fig.1 — 18th Century portrait of Christophe Paul de Robien
The Curiosity Cabinet, Cabinet de Curiosité or Wunderkammer is the ancestor of the modern museum — a collection of objects from around the world arranged in a single room or cabinet. The MBAR collections began with such a collection of curious objects, gathered by Christophe-Paul, marquis de Robien in the 18th century.
Our approach
Fig.2 — Musical game of the Chinese king (stone chime)
K+A responded to this request by developing storyboards for how the game would draw in the young audience and engage them in learning about the objects themselves. We developed a structure that would be filled by selecting objects from the FRAME museum collections. We then developed a set of simple direct-manipulation games that could be re-used for a variety of objects.
The solution
Working with the FRAME member museums in the United States and France, the team selected twenty-five objects from five continents. Following an animated introduction by the marquis de Robien himself, each player must search the globe using sound to find six missing objects, then play an interactive game to win each object for their own collection. Once all the objects are in place, the player must solve the marquis' final enigma before completing their own Room of Wonders.
Fig.3 — Detail of the map of Africa
Developing the game involved sophisticated illustration — a complete map of each continent, with native flora and fauna as well as a simulated Curiosity Cabinet — as well as sound design for locating the object and feedback while playing the games. Several games also involved musical sounds associated with the objects themselves
These elements were combined using FLASH to provide a smooth interaction for young players. The parts of the game were divided into modules to make it easier for downloading over the web.
The result
Fig.4 — Detail of the completed room
The Room of Wonders has been available for young and old audiences since late 2006 on both the MBAR and the FRAME websites. It was featured in The New York Times in a column by Wendy Moonan on August 17, 2007.