Cherry Blossom Festival
How do you capture the magic of Cherry Blossom without any trees?
World Square Cherry Blossom Festival - Case Study Video
Every year in Japan and across the world, people come together to enjoy the cherry blossom, an experience known as ‘Hanami’. World Square, an urban retail centre in Sydney’s CBD wanted to celebrate Cherry Blossom Festival by bringing together its community of workers, shoppers and diners through a series of immersive digital experiences that would spark joy, wonder and curiosity. Each experience was designed to evoke a different feeling or mood and to give a unique experience of hanami to World Square highlighting its cultural identity and distinctive location.
Nara Park Deer Encounter
This experience allowed visitors to meet and hand feed the famous friendly deer of Nara Park, one of the most visited cherry blossom destinations in Japan.
Players could stand wherever they want in the square. After the simple onboarding which showed them what to do following the countdown, the virtual deer start coming in the area and wonder about, waiting for the users to “feed” them.
Taiko Drumming Circle
This “mini game” allows our visitors to become traditional Japanese Taiko drummers, and play the drums together around a virtual hero sakura tree that’s overlaid in the centre of the game area.
The virtual signs augmented on the floor tells the users where to stand to participate. As they join, a virtual drum appears in front of them (on screen) After the simple “onboarding” which shows them what to do following the countdown, each player needs to beat their drum to the beat, which will be represented on the screen similar to well-known rhythm games such as drum hero.
Calligraphy Dancing
This “mini game” is a modern & digital take on Japanese performance calligraphy that is normally performed with brushes on big canvas. It allows our visitors to use their bodies with flowing movements to write calligraphy symbols in the air, around a virtual hero sakura tree that’s overlaid in the centre of the game area.
AR Torii Gate
Designed to spark individual curiosity, we created a physical, custom built Torii Gate through which you could experience World Square transformed with flurries of pink blossom and cherry trees simply by using your phone.
