Hi there! This is Sharrae from the ArtemisXR team developed through Oya Media Group's Scale Up Immersive bootcamp. We will be updating our individual and collective journey in bringing forward our experience Protectress. Protectress is a single-player narrative adventure experience for Oculus about the protection and restoration of the Sacred Forest; tasked with the quest of healing the forest by the Ancient Artemis, it is up to the player, a Defender of the Earth, to plant the seeds thus communicating with the Tree Kingdom before the knowledge is lost forever. On the project I am the co-writer and director of motion capture and the voice actors for our experience.

Last week Valerie started us off and shared a little bit about our project. This week I’m going to share more about the story element especially as it relates to the intention placed in writing the dialogue for one of our main characters, The Wisdoms, trees of old. I will also share about directing motion capture and our actors.

Protectress is centered on the User’s meeting of the ancient goddess Artemis.This beloved Goddess honoured throughout the ages felt apt to select as the guide for this game centred on protecting a forest of old trees. She protects the forest, women and children of course. We are excited to see how users will feel in connecting with the main guide and how that may impact their journey in the 7-minute prototype.

The Wisdoms are central to our story. Within both deep ecological research and indigenous wisdom traditions it has been proven that trees’s sentience is integrated within a network of communication systems, very much mimicked by telecommunication technologies. In thinking about how to convey what wisdom they are to share, we intentionally consulted with an indigenous elder to support in synthesis simple yet often not thought about concepts. However, being that this is a prototype, each Wisdom can only speak for about two sentences. We hope that the phrases offered speak to and trigger the user’s own memory of either lived experience, things heard through the grapevine, or inspire them to learn more about our longstanding symbiotic friendship with the natural world.

I think its important to note, that given that this experience is set in a forest that is intentionally being de-forested, that it is a story that asks us no matter, our skinsuit, our profession or our ideology to PAUSE, THINK and CHOOSE a different way of being. Opening us up to a beautiful realm of interconnection.

Next you will hear from Tendisai who has thought out the UI Design for the experience.

*Photo is early level design