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Posts Tagged ‘wondermind’

WONDERMIND NOMINATED FOR A SXSW AWARD! – UPDATED: VOTE FOR US.

Posted 24 January 2012 by SJ

I suppose the title of this post says it all, but HURRAH,  Wondermind is a finalist in for an SXSW Interactive Award in the Educational Resource category. Wish us luck please – we find out on March 13 2012!

(Also, the iMac is still up for grabs, so enter, enter!)

(I’m dancing at my desk!)

UPDATE: You can now vote for us in the People’s Choice Awards. I would be eternally grateful….

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WIN AN IMAC WITH WONDERMIND!

Posted 10 January 2012 by SJ

Thanks for your patience everyone, I had to iron out some last minute details on our competition, but now I am READY TO GO.

Right, do you want to win one of these?

Yes? Here’s what you need to do.

Have a play on Wondermind and find the Rabbit Hole tag in the blog when you’re done.

There are four posts there – each with a tricky task or question about the world of Alice in Wonderland at the end.

Answer all four, by leaving a comment in the box. Then, when you’re sure you have all four answers correct, email them to me at kids@tate.org.uk by 1st March 2012 with your name, age and address.

I will check all of them, of course, and if you’ve got them all right, you’re in with a chance to get your hands on that iMac.

Good luck – I wish I could enter myself!

SJ

Here are some T&Cs for you. This competition is open to UK visitors I’m afraid. Any other questions, let me know!

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GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE – WONDERMIND IS LIVE

Posted 21 November 2011 by SJ

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we’ve been so busy working on Wondermind we forgot to tell you all that it’s now live and ready to play!

Go on, get over there!

 

Enter the world of your Wondermind and:

  • talk to scientists who know more about your brain than even you do
  • discover art inspired by the developing brain
  • follow the White Rabbit into the forest of synapses
  • find the Cheshire Cat in a moonlit maze
  • talk tea with the Mad Hatter
  • remember not to upset the Queen of Hearts

Wondermind is related to our Alice in Wonderland exhibition at Tate Liverpool – if you are able to visit, do – it’s really very good.

Let us know what you think over there or on here!

Best wishes – are you all looking forward to Christmas as much as I am?

SJ
Tate Kids Editor

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DRAWING WONDERMIND

Posted 6 October 2011 by SJ
I’m Catherine and my job at Preloaded is to draw things and make them move. I created all the art and animations for Wondermind, which shaped the way the game looks and feels. I’m here to give you a little peek at the artwork for Wondermind.

 

As soon as I knew I would be working on a game based on Alice in Wonderland, I instantly felt inspired. If anything could spark the imagination, Lewis Carroll’s story (full of bizarre lands, fantastical characters and rabbit holes) would certainly do the trick. (I was also secretly excited about the prospect of animating a rabbit, but I didn’t tell anyone.)

 

The games explore various concepts about how the brain works in a fun way. This ties in really neatly with the themes of Alice in Wonderland and how the story explores surreal concepts in a fun and gamey way.

 

The challenge for me was to create artwork which captured the fun, exploratory and mysterious feel of the books whilst feeling new and different – there are various familiar versions of Alice in Wonderland and we wanted to create something fresh. It was a lot of fun taking such a well known character and world, and approaching it in my own magical way.

 

 

We spent a lot of time looking at storybook illustrations of Alice in Wonderland, particularly those during the Victorian period, and this eventually fed quite strongly into our final designs. We wanted the game to be an illustration that came to life, almost as if you we’re looking at a book, but with a fresh new look.

 

 

At first we considered using the science within our early designs, drawing inspiration from Victorian Science Books. We eventually decided it was too complicated and we opted for something simpler, but carried on using Victorian style typography throughout the project.

 

 

Most of the art is quite grounded and isn’t too strange; we wanted the Wonderland to be more mysterious than alien. Similar to the way Alice noticed over time how odd Wonderland was, we wanted the players to find the world “curiouser and curiouser.”

 

Everything in Wondermind has been kept colourful and light, however because this is Wonderland, the overall game has surreal undertones which show through mostly within some of the characters and atmosphere.

 

Alice went through a number of changes. At first she was a bit cartoonish, but I developed her to look more contemporary and with a bit of an attitude.

 

 

Each game is set in a different part of the Alice in Wonderland story and it was a lot of fun to dream up new ways of portraying these moments. We aimed to give each game it’s own distinct palette of colour, instead of making them all matching (which would have been so boring!). All our approaches to familiar elements like hedge mazes and card soldiers were carefully thought about and I did my best to ensure that nothing looked too obvious. The ‘tea party’ game, for example, includes a steam-punk style table! (I should note that when I was working on that game I made sure people at Preloaded made me regular cups of tea, as this was very important for research.)

 

The first game we worked on was the game set in the woods. We weren’t entirely sure how the games were going to look at this point, so the initial designs were experimental and quite loose. Eventually we decided on a style which we used throughout all the games which included detailed backgrounds, quirky animations and swirly looking trees.

 

 

 

My favorite design has to be the “Wondermind” brain. This is where it all comes together!  When you first come across Wondermind for the first time, so too does Alice. Both of you are about to begin this wacky adventure of discovering not only Wonderland, but your own mind. It’s been a very fun project to work on and hopefully everyone will have as much fun playing as we have had working on it.

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WONDERFUL NEW GAMES COMING SOON…

Posted 13 September 2011 by Hannah

Do you like Alice in Wonderland? Do you know there’s going to be an exhibition about Alice in Wonderland at Tate Liverpool in November?

We’re working on a very exciting project to go with the show. It’s like nothing we’ve ever done before. It’s called WONDERMIND (and yes, it will be WONDERful, ha).

Rough logo design for Wondermind

Here's the logo in its rough stage!

 

We are working with top scientists and artists to make games and videos which will explore the incredible ways your mind works. The growing mind is an incredible, flexible, changing thing – just like the world of Wonderland!

The Wondermind level design

Can you figure out our clever idea for the different levels?

We’re working with Preloaded (who made The End, SuperMe and  Launchball), Martin Percy (who made our own Barbara’s Garden and The Secret Dancer) and Michelle de Haan (an actual scientist who has written loads of incredible books AND has been on telly talking about children’s brains!), and it’s all been made possible by the Wellcome Trust.

Get ready to do down the rabbithole…

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