Professor Savant's Submarine Tours
Spring of 2020 was a challenging time. My university classes had unceremoniously been shoved online, my student organization's events were postponed indefinitely, and the theater production I had set designed was completely halted in its tracks. Luckily, I still had one outlet left: the 2020 Cornell Theme Park Design Competition.
Cornell was already online, so although I was nervous about the thought of having my work judged by industry professionals (ironic and possibly hypocritical for someone who runs a similar competition), I was hungry for some design work. My lovely friends Justin Forgas and Caitlyn Limpioso asked me to join their team, and I happily accepted, also bringing Inis Kondakciu along as our fourth and final member. We were a good mix: two mechanical engineering students with hard technical backgrounds, another mechanical engineering student with a scenic design and art background, and a theatre/hospitality double major, also skilled at digital art.
The year's prompt was to create a novel ride for a Canadian aquarium that educated guests about sustainability and environmentalism with ties to the area's fauna and culture. After individual research and pitch presentation, we elected to choose my proposal, a simulator ride searching for Canada's greatest cryptid, Ogopogo.
Ride Story Synopsis
The queue was housed in the mansion of esteemed cryptozoologist Dr. Emeril Savant, who had been closely monitoring the whereabouts of Ogopogo for a number of years. Guests could explore the mansion freely, interacting with Dr. Savant's collections and using an AR-enabled magnifying glass to learn about Canadian wildlife, real and mythological. When the magnifying glass lit up, the party would make way to Dr. Savant's laboratory for a tour of the lake.
The lab served as the main queue to the ride vehicles, and guests could amuse themselves with Dr. Savant's wild experiments. Upon entering the gatehouse to the submarines, guests received an urgent transmission from Bucky Beaver, Dr. Savant's trusty mutant animal lab assistant, stating that poachers had kidnapped Dr. Savant and were attempting to kill Ogopogo for a trophy.
Guests boarded submarines, which simulated a wild chase after the poachers and had periscopes that showed facts about the surrounding lake life. The guests tracked Ogopogo on the sub's radar, freeing her before the poachers could capture the mighty beast. After a chase into a cave, grounded guests exited into one of several differently-themed escape rooms. Upon completion of the cave's puzzle, guests were finally free, receiving a final transmission from Dr. Savant, who managed to escape his captors as well. The heroic guests exited into a giftshop in the opposite end of Savant's manor.
My Work
I created the logo, ride-through thumbnail sketches, most of the ride's concept art, and the final renders of the set. I also compiled my and Inis' art into a final pitch poster. (The final renders are shown above, while the rest is below. Art not specified as mine in this blog was created by Inis Kondakciu.)
Thumbnail Ride-Through
Manor (Queue) Concepts
Submarine & Cave (Ride/Escape Room) Concepts
Various Other Concepts
Though this project did not win any major awards and the competition was fierce, I am incredibly proud of the work my team and I put forward, especially as three first-time competitors working entirely online at the start of what would turn out to be a multi-year global pandemic event. In all, Dr. Savant and Ogopogo are close to my heart as my first-ever blue sky design project, and I could not be happier with the outcome.
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