Chronicles of the Sea:
The Researcher's Lab
The Researcher's Lab
an immersive theatre experience based on the world of Chronicles of the Sea.
Participants investigate an abandoned lab to uncover the legendary story of a once thriving, seafaring civilization's collapse by deciphering inscriptions and artefacts written in the Huandzay conlang.
▲ Exhibition space of Chronicles of the Sea: The Researcher's Lab as per August 2023
▼ Players solving puzzle 2: The Gate
ABOUT CHRONICLES
Chronicles of the Sea was initially envisioned as an interactive logbook.
Filled with excavation notes collected by protagonist Jane Bell's research team during their 1995 expedition to the "mysterious" Huandzay island, which had suddenly emerged from the depths of the ocean that summer, it was not only a practice in science-based worldbuilding but also a manifesto on the archaeologist's trope in (video) games.
Brimming with language puzzles it intended to familiarize the player with paleo-linguistics and archaeological methods. Informed by Vellinga's own research, it challenges and deconstructs the pervasive, colonialist stereotypes connected to archaeology and games.
This resulted in an interactive project that dealt critically with the question: what does it mean to do archaeology? When a civilization ends, what remains, what do we preserve? As the effects of climate change become apparent, these questions become more pressing than ever.
After plenty of playtesting in this format, Vellinga decided to shift to the interactive theatre space as the linearity of the logbook format felt limiting to the intended experience.
The future of Chronicles is bright: It is set to become a multi-hour immersive experience that combines puzzle and dance to tell the story of a woman's self-discovery in the final moments before societal collapse.
The original trailer:
OLD MATERIALS
This will feature in an all-encompassing YA Lore Book containing the puzzles, logbook notes/illustrations, full Huandzay grammar and dictionary, and the story of The Huandzay Civilization (Dash and Shahda's epic).
Snippets:
WORLDBUILDING
The World of Chronicles of the Sea
The starting point of building the world of Chronicles was the assumption that LANGUAGE is the most precise carrier of culture. WRITTEN LANGUAGE, then, is the prime portal through which past cultures are accessible (taking into account the ways in which time, translation and personal prejudice obscure true meaning). Since archaeology is the study of the past through tangible data, the puzzles of Chronicles should be language based.
The steps:
1. Establish language translation as a puzzle mechanic:
2. Write the story outline and break it up into beats and puzzles (see story!)
3. Adjust the narrative to the game format and implement in Excel (OBSOLETE):
4. Design the Huandzaj language + script:
Deposits from the sea are the base for Huandzaj protoscript:
Which was eventually turned into a digital glyph system:
5. Implement everything into an interface, currently working in InDesign and Photoshop.
7. Music, audiologs and art
I have a 2D artist and composer to make location-based sketches and compositions. Additionally, I am writing audiologs (click here for audiolog 1) that will feature as scripted scenes performed by actors in the immersive theatre.
