In the first ever semester of NYU IDM’s Amusement Park Prototyping course, students were asked to come up with a story in response to a prompt; then, we sketched out our ride ideas, built dioramas, and ultimately created digital versions of our rides in Unreal Engine 4. The coolest part? We were able to send numeric data out of UE4 to Max/MSP, which then used that data to control the movement of our Stewart Platform, allowing us to create a physical ride simulation to go along with the visuals we’d created in UE4.

In response to our prompt, which asked us to imagine what it might be like for humanity to return to Earth after living in space for a number of years, my teammates and I came up with a story about a raccoon who belongs to the Protectors of the Forest, an elite team of warriors dedicated to ensuring the safety of all life in the forest. The greatest threat? A powerful alien race of robots who recently attacked Earth in an attempt to harvest the magic of the bountiful, lush nature that had grown in humanity’s absence. The Protectors of the Forest are quite sure that they successfully managed to use their spirit weapons to banish all of the robots from Earth…but with some suspicious occurrences happening in the forest lately, our brave raccoon has been tasked with leading an investigation — and you (the rider) are part of his trusty team.

When you feel ready, embark on an adventure full of twists and turns as you join the Protectors of the Forest in their quest to save the world from the evil army of robots! (And by that, I mean: check out our video below, or consider watching one of the other amusing videos in our playlist!)