Distant Paradise - IUPUI - Themed Attraction

Background

Distant Paradise was a group project for the Introduction to Themed Entertainment Design Class at IUPUI. Having backgrounds in design, art and engineering, together we were able to collaborate in creating a land for a theme park.

Members:

Bryant Rahadian – Themed Entertainment Design Certificate Program
- Portfolio: www.bryantrahadian.com/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bryantrahadian/
Zoe Law – Themed Entertainment Design Minor
- Contact: lawzoe90@gmail.com
Juan Pablo, S. Sola – Themed Entertainment Design Certificate Program
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/juanpablo-sola/

Story

Sometime in the past, 80B (Bob), a space explorer was on his way back to the space base to report back from exploration duty. However, his rocket ship unexpectedly experienced some failures. Despite all his efforts to keep the rocket going, he was forced to make an emergency landing on a strange forest planet. Stranded, his only option to get rescued was to explore the strange new world in order to find a communication signal. During 80B’s exploration, he wrote down his discoveries and left them behind, in hopes of informing future explorers. Thanks to 80B, we know that there once was a thriving alien resort close to his impact site. The now-defunct resort is currently preserved by 80B’s space exploration mates.

Theme

In the science fiction land, guests are meant to feel confused, transcendent and unfamiliar in an otherworldy environment. There, they will discover the explorative spirit within themselves; life is full of adventure. Eventually, when they leave the land, we want guests to think that greed destroys all and eventually, everything returns to nature.

Concept art for Distant Paradise. 3D modeled in Blender, composited in Adobe Photoshop. Some elements generated using Midjourney.

Guest Experience

When guests step into this distant paradise, they are transported to the space base — the final pit stop before starting their adventure. Surrounded by hi-tech structures and instruments, guests can find all the necessities one can need such as food, equipment and, of course, restrooms. Past the space base, guests explore in the footsteps of 80B into a mysterious forest. In the middle of the land, guests can navigate through a maze filled with 80B’s notes before encountering his rocket ship. To the left of the maze, guests can take a boat tour and discover everything that this distant paradise has to offer. Further into the forest, guests can find an alien hotel where they can experience an attraction, and also a restaurant where their tastebuds will dance to the out-of-this-world recipes found in the hotel’s old cookbooks.

Quick Service Restaurant Concept Art Distant Paradise

Concept art for the quick service restaurant at the space base. 3D modeled in Blender, menu images generated using Midjourney.

Menu design concept for the restaurant adjacent to the alien hotel attraction. Designed using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign.

Taste & Smell

We wanted to have some food options that relate to the story (like 80B’s potato salad and astronaut food) but still have the food be fun and taste good. The
first menu is a little fancier and the second menu is more grab-n-go. For the smells in our land, the space base has more of a fresh and new smell, like a new car smell. We chose that because it’s full of new futuristic technology and imagined that’s similar to how it would smell since the area is also very clean. It makes a good contrast to the area that the hub goes into as well since it’s a forest. The forest would have a lot of smells naturally like from the dirt and lake, but we might still have slight basic “foresty” smells sent through machines. For the “abandoned” hotel, it would have some nice floral sents in since it used to be part of a fancy resort, but it’s still supposed to be abandoned. So while you get hints of nice/fancy smells that clue you into its past, the hotel would still mostly smell old and dusty.

Sustainability

In order for guests to enjoy this themed land for years to come, we have several initiatives to maintain its upkeep and to do our part for the environment.

Dining: In order to reduce waste, we have opted to use glass dinnerware, not just in our restaurant, but also at our QSR as well. At the QSR, once guests are finished with their meal, guests can simply return their wares to dedicated return windows.
Recycling: Recycling bins will be distributed across the themed land.
Digitalization: This is extremely important for streamlining systems and processes while working with maximum and up-to-date information. Additionally, it eliminates unnecessary waste.
Green energy: We utilize green energy to reduce carbon emissions.

Technology Use

In order to fully immerse guests in the Distant Paradise, there are several pieces of technology that we would like to use.

Space base area
- Roaming robots/animatronics
- Smoke machines
Forest area
- Fog and smoke machines
- Blacklight lighting (bioluminescent simulation)
Hotel area
- Projectors for projection mapping (nighttime shows)
All areas
- Hidden speakers, lights and fans