The Story of Kane and Kade
Dardura Website Logo
We created this logo to use across all artifacts and platforms.
Meet the Team
In the Beginning...
Background
Throughout the Winter 2022 semester, we were given the task to create a concept for a narrative based on an Ancient Greek story. At each stage throughout this project, our pieces and story were advancing and evolving, which will be shown here in this case study. Our group, Burning Wings Productions, decided to go with "The Allegory of the Cave".
The allegory of the cave presents a philosophical look into perceptions of reality and the truth within it. A group of people are raised within a cave and understand reality as the shadows projected on the cave's walls. When one prisoner is freed one day, they must re-learn what reality is, and cope with the desire to go back into the cave and free the others, that may not necessarily want to leave. Our story is based on twin brothers, Kane and Kade.
Our story presents an opportunity for audiences to interact with characters and their perceptions of reality and what they deem to be the proper way of living. Rabbit holes will be presented through our artifacts that explore each character's perception of reality, and the experiences that bring them to those perceptions. Kane & Kade presents the allegory of the cave with themes of the Metaverse in a futuristic society that has largely abandoned reality to live hedonistically in a Virtual Reality.
Our Story
Kane & Kade follows the story of twin brothers who live in a society that favours the Metaverse. Kane & Kade are brothers who have drifted due to their differences in values surrounding the meta (Dardura). While Kade is obsessed with this virtual reality, Kane resents it for bringing him and his brother apart. However, one day Kane is forced out of the Dardura when he encounters a glitch in the system. He must go fix his equipment in the real world. Dardura runs the meta that is facing increasing threats and attacks on them, which is why Kane's system experiences errors. These errors are caused by iCarus, an anti-meta group. Upon meeting Daedalus - the merchant - Kane gains greater insight into the state of the world. He realizes the importance of reality to him and no longer desires to enter the Metaverse for leisure. However, he wishes to free his brother Kade from the Metaverse, which becomes increasingly difficult as Kade gains rapid status and wealth in the Metaverse. The title that Kade has eventually means nothing to Kane, who tries to set others free from the Metaverse, only causing further conflict between him and his brother. This leads to Kane being pushed out of the city, Kade chooses his status and Kane is forced to find his new community of Metaverse rebels outside the city. Both brothers end up solidifying their differences by becoming active members in their respective communities that uphold their view of reality/illusion.
Narrative Arc
Exposition: The story starts off with Kane and Kade in their respective environments. Kane experiences a power outage with his headset. Kade is attempting to make his way into the Metaverse, and acquire more power.
Rising Action: Kane leaves the comfort of his home to find a way to fix his headset. He meets Daedalus and discovers a lot more than he bargained for.
Climax: Kane eventually is able to find Kade, and they catch up on what's been happening in each other's lives.
Falling Action: The brothers fight it out, attempting to convince the other that they are right in terms of what they should do.
Resolution: Kane is forced to leave Valthea and find somewhere else to live, while Kade acquires more power in the city. The two brothers go separate ways.
Onto the Story...
We are now beginning to develop our story further and think of the basics. We were required to incorporate one AR or VR artifact, six digital media artifacts, and two physical artifacts into our final submission. We came up with these ideas and worked through them slowly throughout the semester, changing and editing our approach as required.
Primary Audience
The primary audience for our multimedia experience includes individuals of any gender from the ages 18-50. Many of our physical objects such as posters will only be viewable from within Sheridan College Trafalgar Campus so our targeted primary audience aligns closely with Sheridan's current student and teacher base. We feel this is the best for our story, as there are some mature themes and the content could appear more graphic for younger audiences.
Themes
Reality vs Illusion: While each brother has their own reasons for staying within their world, they will meet resistance in attempting to convert the other into their way of thinking. Daedalus and other secondary characters will act as a middle ground between the two brother's extreme views when exploring reality and illusion (Metaverse).
Family Ties: Companionship is important to all, especially Kane & Kade who only have each other. This theme will be further explored when they realize that their ideal way of living no longer coincides, which results in the twins needing to find another community.
Characters
Kane is one of the main characters in this story. Kane believes that AR/VR can be useful, but doesn't think it's a necessary piece of technology to live. His end goal is to dismantle society's dependency on it.
Kade is our other main character in this story. Kade enjoys using AR/VR daily and doesn't want to leave Dardura, where it is used religiously. He later becomes a powerful influence on the people.
Daedalus is a wise merchant who helps Kane with his mission to learn about the Metaverse and informs him of solutions to his goals.
iCarus is a collective group of people also known as the resistance. They all live outside of the Metaverse and live as if it doesn't exist.
Carnation is the leader of the resistance, which is also known as the iCarus people. Their main goal is to destroy the Metaverse.
Story Locations
Dardura: The name of the Metaverse. This is the world that the citizens spend most of their lives.
Valthea: The name of the city in this story takes place. The city is overrun by bandits, and most of the population stays in their homes.
D's Fortunes: The shop owned by the Wise Merchant, Daedalus.
Falwater Dunes: Exiled lands outside of the city where there are no resources for people to survive.
Story Timeline
Day 1: Kane's headset breaks down; he sets out to find a way to fix it. Kade meanwhile is working his way to the top in the Metaverse.
Day 2: Kane can find Daedalus, a merchant who can give him a backstory of the world and why the city lives that way. Kade is allowed to become assistant to the mayor of Valthea.
Day 3: Kane sets out on a journey to find his brother Kade, as he knows he has more power and influence to help save people.
Day 4: Kane still trying to find Kade. Kade is enjoying his newfound fortunes with the mayor.
Day 5: Kane finds Kade on a poster advertising for the Metaverse, with him behind the mayor, he can find him. Kade welcomes Kane with open arms and lets him stay at the town hall.
Day 6: Kade learns of Kane's true motives, and threatens to kick him out and exile him to the Falwater Dunes.
Day 7: Kane leaves the next day, the brothers are separated, and Kane finds the iCarus.
Artifacts Overview
At this stage of the project, it is now time to create and test our artifacts. We have developed numerous websites, social media accounts, and other artifacts over the course of the term. We have committed to our story arc and are developing the story further to go along with what we created.
*Due to the nature of this assignment, some artifacts are no longer available online due to the educational institutions' servers.
AR Posters
The AR poster makes use of AR.JS and a-frame to bring the physical poster to life. The design and assets for this poster were designed by Colin and then later made into an augmented reality experience coded by Adam which can be accessed through the Dardura Chatbot. The AR poster uses the physical poster as a base and projects a message to anyone in Dardura that they are trapped and in chains. There is a secret code within the AR projection which can later be used to bring Dardura down if the user chooses in the story. The idea for this poster was that people living in the AR/VR world of Dardura would see it and it would bring more awareness to the iCarus cause. Originally, the poster had a different AR element but iCarus was able to hack this small message into Dardura's technology with the help of Daedalus. For iCarus' AR poster, we decided to use a contrasting style and colour scheme to the one used on Dardura's poster. 3D elements were used and images of metallic chains and trees are used to alarm and intimidate viewers, contributing to the idea of no clear good or evil side.
Audio Recordings
The script was developed by both Natalia and Colin to create an iCarus character by the name of Carnation to recruit users into overthrowing Dardura. The audio had to be re-recorded due to problems with sound and noise that were not considered during the first recording. This involves quiet audio that would periodically jump in volume and make screeching noises. Natalia's voice is the base of Carnation and Adobe Audition was used to distort, add noise, and give more character to sound bites.
Daedalus Chatbot
Dan Schiffman's voice Chatbot code was used as a starting point but was eventually scrapped as we wanted ours to be text-only. Adam coded the Chatbot from scratch by using an array of strings and a variety of if-statements that would check on the value of a variable to output the next string. The P5.JS sketch was later developed to be a back- end (secret) side of Dardura where users could interact. Using Adam's initial desktop prototype as a starting point visually, the p5 sketch was with a typewriter effect and made to mimic the command prompts of modern-day PCs
Dardura Website
The Dardura site prototype was initially developed by Adam but was optimized for a desktop screen. It was realized that a mobile-first approach was necessary as we were sending users to the Dardura site through the QR code posters that would be scanned by phone. Natalia used the site developed by Adam as a starting point to make the mobile. prototype. The main artifacts attached to the Dardura site were the Daedalus Chatbot, and later the social media sign-up/feed. The Chatbot was meant to be linear and a script was developed by Natalia.
Dardura Website Sign Up
The sign-up login form (designed by Adam) makes use of PHP queries through the website that allows users to log in, like, comment and update their profiles on the Dardura website. This functionality makes the website feel more "alive" as users log in like they would on any regular website and see posts and comments that give users background information on the world we have created.
iCarus WordPress Website
iCarus WordPress The iCarus archive website is a secret collection of audio recordings from the leader of iCarus herself, Carnation. In these recordings, instructions for a secret ongoing mission are embedded. The instructions detail a plan for disrupting the world of Dardura and bringing people back into iCarus' world.
Viewers are led to the website through branded QR code stickers that use the iCarus symbol as a focal point and pull the audience into our story. The audience is introduced to iCarus' beliefs and then lead through an audio mission where they must infiltrate Dardura, and locate and hack the Dardura servers to further the goals of iCarus.
Instagram Profiles
Kane and Kade show their respective personalities on their own Instagram accounts, also highlighting what they stand for. Each of their posts goes in chronological order with the story.
On Kane's Instagram, at first, he uses VR often but experiences technical difficulties with his headset. He then begins to post about his brother and learns more about the world he lives in, and how much he dislikes it. He later on discovers more and eventually begins to fight against his brother at the end of the story.
On Kade's Instagram, he posts more about his life in Dardura and how much he enjoys it. He does all the activities and brags about his lifestyle. Later in the story, Kade gets more responsibilities in the Metaverse and switches from adventurous to serious figurehead. In the end he is running for a very high position in Dardura.
Maps
We developed two maps that aid in secret missions for Icarus and Dardura. The first map is a decoy map that is posted by an inside agent for iCarus. The map is disguised as a fun activity for people to do but really it reveals the location of Dardura's servers. The viewers of the map are led there by instructions from iCarus' secret site with audio instructions from Carnation herself. The viewer's mission is to reach all of the points on the map and locate a sticker that looks like a Dardura QR code. Once they scan the code, they can either fix the glitch or make it worse, which is where the next map comes in.
Then, the second map is posted by a Dardura official and explicitly reveals the location of Dardura servers and how to repair the "glitch" they are experiencing. Along with the map, there is a bit of dialogue informing the viewer of a code that will solve the glitch once they have reached the servers (QR codes). The viewer must enter the code into the website and fix the glitch
Physical Posters
The physical poster is used to link viewers to the main Dardura site and works as an advertisement for anyone who hasn't joined the Dardura virtual community. The physical poster was designed to remind users of a nostalgic time. The idea behind the post was that it was posted a long time ago when Dardura was first on the rise. However, now the posters have become forgotten by Dardura as they move forward with their new reality. The posters are merely a memory of the past. We referenced posters that might be nostalgic to users from a movie or something set in the 60s or 50s. These posters were more friendly, approachable and extremely colourful, giving the user the idea that whatever was advertised must be as wonderful and exciting as the poster itself. We did not want the viewers to see Dardura or iCarus as good or bad so we reversed the styling. Dardura's physical poster appears warm and friendly while the AR poster may be colder and intimidating.
QR Code Stickers
When the iCarus website was finalized, a QR code was generated with the iCarus logo. Due to iCarus' cryptic nature, it felt appropriate to leave these stickers near the posters with the logo being the only identifier.
